


The Ocean's Blessing

by dontcryMasha



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Curious Castiel, Cute, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Interspecies Sex, M/M, Mermaids, Merman Castiel, Merverse, Rimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-30
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-23 06:51:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 27,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2538293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontcryMasha/pseuds/dontcryMasha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gunspier is a little fishing town that Dean Winchester calls home. He and his brother have been living off the fish they catch for as long as they can remember with nothing terribly memorable other than good friends to pass the time. But everything is about to change after Dean gets foolishly stuck in a storm and is rescued by the most curious of all mythical sea creatures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sea Storms

Heavy, grey clouds had been hanging over the fishing town of Gunspier for several days, now. They gave out a light drizzle every now and then but for the most part they were sitting still, doing nothing. It didn’t stop the markets from opening and it certainly didn’t prevent the morning joggers from going out, but for a small house at the end of Chisholm lane, it meant bigger things.

Behind the day’s newspaper sat a young man with hair nearly to his neck. He was well-built and sporting a bit of facial scruff. Once the coffee maker clicked off, he set the paper down and got up to pour himself a cup, which happened to be the same time that his older brother came stumbling into the kitchen.

“This _sucks_ ,” he croaked, rubbing his eyes. The younger of them replaced the coffee pot after getting his cup and turned to his brother, leaning up against the calendar.

“What does?”

“No catch.”

He was older but also a few inches shoulder and he kept his hair cut short. His body was firm, muscular and tanned from being outside most of his life. Many, many freckles coated his skin and contrasted perfectly with his green eyes. He also had dimples, but today they wouldn’t be making an appearance.

“Well,” the younger one began, “I heard there will be tuna soon.”

“Oh, yeah?” the other perked up. He took a seat at the little round table and pulled the newspaper to his side. “Where’d you hear that?”

“Bobby.”

“ _Bobby?_ He gave another one of those ‘psychic insights’?”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t matter.”

“Why not?”

The younger brother returned to the table and drank his coffee placidly. “Check the weather.”

“Uh...hm…okay…okay…storms?”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“Storms tomorrow. When’re the tuna coming?”

“I’m not sure, he wasn’t too clear.”

“Jesus,” the older one huffed, dropping the paper to the table again. “If he’s gonna be psychic, could he be more thorough?”

“I’m not sure, Dean, but I don’t think he’s actually psychic.”

Dean narrowed his eyes and sat back in his chair. He folded his arms and peered at his brother with great interested. “So what, then?” he asked. “He’s talking to mermaids or something?”

“Don’t know.”

“Oh come on, Sammy. There’s no such thing. Now you’re sounding like a real idiot. I thought you were the smartest, most logical person in Gunspier?”

Sam laughed. “I never said that!”

“Yeah but you _act_ like it.”

“I don’t. I swear. But about Bobby—he’s never said how he gets those predictions. He doesn’t say it’s a feeling, doesn’t say it’s calculated anyway or something like that.”

Dean puffed out a noise of discontent. “Never said it’s mermaids, either.”

But Sam just shrugged and continued to drink his coffee. “He’s always been right,” he retorted simply. Dean sucked his teeth for a second then got up. “Where are you going?”

“Hey, if Bobby’s always right, then there _will_ be tuna coming, and I need to get a piece of that action before the rest of ‘em do.”

“Dean, wait! The storms!”

“They’re tomorrow, they’re tomorrow,” his brother muttered as he left the kitchen. Sam sighed heavily and looked down at the paper, saying something to himself like “the paper isn’t always right…”

Dean dressed and packed for a day’s trip on the ocean. Sam had learned by now that he couldn’t stop his brother from doing anything, be he could at least nag him until he might change his mind.

“We don’t even know where the tuna will be, or when,” he said. Dean put on a ruddy baseball cap and picked up a couple duffel bags of supplies.

“What if it’s now?”

“What if it _storms_?”

“I’ll come back before anything like that happens.” Sam looked grumpy when Dean said this, so he added, “Don’t worry. You worry too much. Watch, I’ll be back with a load we can sell to Dunny.”

“I _guess_.”

“Get me on the radio if you gotta complain more. I’m heading out.”

Dean grinned as he walked out the front door and down the long stairs to the ground. The houses near the shore were on stilts in case the sea level rose greatly. Sam and Dean had never seen it get that high, but their father, who passed away five years prior, claimed he had (they weren’t sure if it was true or not, though).

Down the shore but within walking distance there was the pier. Most of the boats that lived there were tied up, since everyone in Gunspier knew there would be stormy weather soon and they weren’t mental like Dean. He wondered if Bobby was out or not.

He climbed into the _Mary’s Bounty_ and tossed his things into the cabin. It was a tiny boat, the only thing their useless father could afford when it came to marine vessels. They were lucky to have it, though, since the boys proved to be rather useless unless they were catching fish.

Dean went buzzing off in the boat, out towards the clouded horizon. Winds whipped up as he went further and further out, but it didn’t take too long for him to see that there were, indeed, giant schools of tuna out and about.

“Holy shit!” Dean cried to himself, looking off the side and into the water. Thousands and thousands of them were swimming around. Excitement bubbled through Dean’s veins, and more so the image of him coming home to Sam with a giant catch, unscathed by any storms. “I told you so,” he whispered to himself, practicing.

The net was cast and big, healthy tuna began to pile into it. Dean was laughing with joy, tugging on the net and basking in the glory of the bounty. He had never seen such amounts of fish, particularly tuna that large. They’d be able to sell fish to Dunny _and_ Maison, the two cities immediately inland that bought fish from Gunspier. Maison was farther and you could sell them for more.

But in the midst of Dean’s joy, he ended up going out into rough seas. The current began to push at pull at the boat, nearly knocking him off a few times. “Damn!” he shouted. It was hard to keep his catch secured. A bit of panic quivered down his spine, especially when he realized that there were now dark storm clouds headed his way, and sooner rather than later. “Time to get back…”

He kicked the boat into high gear and tried to return to shore, but the current was so wicked that he could barely get anywhere, it just pulled him further and further away. Gunspier was disappearing faster than he could keep up with. Maybe it was the weight of the catch pulling him back?”

“No way,” he thought. “I’m not gonna battle this storm _and_ lose my catch. Sammy’ll never let me live that down.”

He tried and tried again, revving the engine and gunning it back towards the shore, but the ocean was pulling him out as its captive. Giant waves started to leap up and splatter onto the small deck. Dean’s heart pumped fast. He went into the cabin and tried to take cover, realizing that his efforts were useless and he had no choice but the wait it out.

_CRACK!_

Now there was lightning. Great, bright flashes of it whipped across the sky, rumbling the glass in the cabin. He went for the radio, just to tell Sam that he _was_ alive, but it seemed to be down. He knocked over a couple things on the little narrow table within the cabin and fell onto his back. The sea was treating him like a dog’s toy, biting and shaking at the edges. More lightning cracked and a great, ominous roar of thunder made Dean shudder and shiver. He tried his best to hold part of the cabin to steady himself, but the waves were so wicked that he couldn’t stay still. Water leaped out and smashed into his side. Rain began to pour. Thunder and lightning continued and Dean realized that he probably wouldn’t make it out of there alive. “The least I can do is let the tuna make it,” he thought.

With a last jump of supposed bravery, he left the cabin and slid across the desk. Rain battering at him and the ocean trying to claim him as its own, he managed to untie the net at the back and allow all of his precious tuna to swim away, down into the safety of the ocean.

Then came a wave—the tallest and most fierce wave he had ever seen. It toppled the ship and sent him flying off. He closed his eyes. The cold water grabbed him. It was over. That was the end of his life.


	2. Saved

“ _Aah…_ ”

The sun was burning hot, high up above. Dean coughed a sputtered a few times before opening his eyes, only to close them again from the beams of light directly over him. The last thing he could remember was being thrown from the ship and though his memory was hazy, he assumed he had died.

“ _Damn…_ ”

The sound of ocean waves splashing against a shore and wind gently rustling branches soothed him momentarily. He was laying on his back, clearly on a bed of sand, body aching all over. The sea rushed louder his feet were splashed.

Dean collected his thoughts as he came to. He struggled to sit up, rub his eyes and get a look at where he was. It was midday and he appeared to be sitting on a beach. He glanced around behind and saw that wherever he was, it had a great amount of rock, but also some trees. Orange trees.

“ _Oranges…_ ”

That sounded like a good idea. He got to his feet, which had evidently lost both shoes, and dragged himself across the hot sand. His best guess was that he was on a small island, but he wasn’t aware of any bodies of land off the coast. Maybe he had managed to wash up on the mainland, just further than he had ever been?

The rocks were dark grey and some parts were black, and they were all heaped together in great formations, the tallest going to about twenty feet. Many plants were all over the place but the top of the rocks had the orange trees. The rocks were jagged but also ascended gradually, so it was relatively easy for Dean to climb them.

When he reached the top, he found that between the ten or so orange trees there was also a spring with fresh flowing water. It bubbled up in a crack that was nearly two feet wide and ran down, through the rock and to the ground level in three trails. The water was beautiful, in a way. Dean still wasn’t sure if he was alive or not, but standing there with the bright sun shaded by the wild orange grove, watching the crystal-clear water splash its way down to the sea was moving. Before he tried any fruit, he first knelt by the spring and cupped some in his hands. He splashed it over his face then drank some. It was incredible, the best water he had ever had. It caressed his throat and made him smile. He pulled off the ragged shirt he was wearing and dipped it into the spring, then used it to wash his face better. He let the cool water run over his body, but when he brought the bunched up shirt to his arm, he stopped. Something was wrong.

On his right bicep, the skin was branded with the strangest looking scar he had ever seen. It was absolutely in the shape of a human hand, spreading its fingers just enough to have, possibly, pulled him out of the ocean. But it was light blue and bumped out like a scar would. Dean ran his fingers over it to see if it was just his own doing, but the hand was too small. He lightly thumbed over it and felt very uneasy all of the sudden. Was there someone, or something, else on the island?

But the smell of the orange blossoms was too much to keep his mind on scarier matters. His stomach was rumbling and he needed to eat something, so he went to one of the trees and pulled off a great, plump fruit and began to peel it. The fruit inside was so juicy, so sweet and the exact thing he needed. He couldn’t help but smile as he ate the entire thing, leaving the peel on the ground. He had another one then took some steps around the grass up there to look over the rocks.

He was indeed on an island. The orange grove was clearly the highest peak and from there he could see all of the points on it. The rocks made up most of it, but curious veins of ocean water made ribbons throughout it, creating a vein-like effect all over the island. It was most strange because the trenches where the water flowed, from where Dean stood, looked like they were creature-made.

But, look! Over on the farthest side, Dean saw none other than _Mary’s Bounty_ , sitting on a sandy bank with visibly little damage. He gasped and let out a sound of relief and excitement upon seeing it, then skirted down through one of the spring’s necks and dashed across the sand. The boat was beat up for sure, but he saw no reason that it couldn’t make it back home, until the moment he checked the gas tank and noticed it barely had any left. That’s when all hope left him. He hadn’t died in the storm, but he would surely meet his demise on the island. Thinking about Sam being alone, wondering if his brother might come back one day but knowing he was gone for good made Dean wish that he would die already so he could forget the pain.

After moping against _Mary’s Bounty_ for a while, Dean decided that he would make the most of his last few days alive. Who knows—maybe if he could start a fire he’d get the attention of someone who could save him?

Since he had plenty of time, he began by touring the entire island. Most of it was the same, with trenches of water cutting through the sand, more and more rocks with some plants and a few sea critters here and there; but then he found a grotto. It was an open formation of rocks which looked as though it run underneath the orange grove up top. The entrance was wide but water made the path. Dean stepped into it and quickly realized that it was too deep for him to stand. He tried latch onto one edge of the entrance and peer inside, just in case there was something he could use within. The large tunnel went back further than he could tell, but somewhere inside he noticed a flickering light—not red or yellow from fire, but rather a deep, purplish blue. That settled it right then and there; he would swim inside.

With a great splash, his body got inside the water and he paddled himself down the tunnel. It was very dark and part of him thought it could be the last thing he’d ever do, but at that point he had nothing to lose. As he wound through the cave, it turned a corner and the glowing became incredibly bright. The light was coming from beautiful points of crystals that jutted from the walls. Dean’s mouth fell open when he saw them. Never had such a thing been seen through his eyes.

_SPLOOSH!_

In his awestruck gazing, he had overlooked someone who shared the cave with him. In the corner of his eye he saw a person duck into the water.

“Hey!” Dean called out. He tread water in the cave and looked over. Where did they go? The water below him was incredibly dark but he managed to spot a glimmer of blue swimming back down the path. Dean shouted again and turned around to follow it. The sun came out and he blinked a few times as he got back to his feet on the sand.

“Someone here??” Dean yelled. He looked around for a moment, trying to observe any bit of movement, when suddenly there was another great, loud splash in the water by the mouth of the grotto. A human head popped up from the surface of the water; one with messy, short black hair and big, blue eyes.

“Y-you’re alive?” the person, male as far as Dean could tell, asked in a gruff-yet-sweet voice. Dean stood his ground.

“Yeah,” he said, “But uh, who’re you?”

The head turned to the side and looked over the water. That’s when Dean saw that he didn’t have human ears, instead there little pointed things that looked like light blue fish fins.

“I shouldn’t be here,” the creature said. Dean was beside himself. He didn’t know what to say and his body locked up, then the head turned back to him and smiled. “I suppose there’s no stopping it now.”

“S-stopping what?” Dean asked. Maybe he was hallucinating.

“Befriending you. Do you have a name?”

Now the creature came out of the surface more, showing the bare, muscular torso of a man. It was pale with a tiny tinge of blue to it.

“Uh, um…what…uh…”

Dean was still at a loss for words, but the creature before him smiled and swam closer. “My name is Castiel,” he said, “Do you have a name?”

“ _Dean…_ ”

“Dean? That is a landperson name?”

“L-landperson?”

Castiel nodded. “You,” he said, and used a hand to point to Dean’s legs. He saw that the hands had slight webbing and long, dark nails.

“Wh-what the hell are you?!” Dean gasped, taking a few steps backwards. His eyes widened. This was no hallucination.

“Why are you afraid?” Castiel asked, tilting his head and looking quite sad. He swam up to the shore and put his arms on the sand. “Do you not even _know_ about seapeople?”

As Dean stood there motionless, the person in the water slithered onto the shore, shimmying a long, ice-blue fish tail instead of legs behind him. There was a long fin down his human-fleshed back, and two big, pretty ones extended from where his hips would be, fluttering like butterfly wings.

“M-mermaid?!” Dean gasped, tripping over himself and falling onto the sand.

“Are you alright?” Castiel asked.

“Y-you’re a mermaid?!”

“Mermaid?”

“Th-the tail! Th-the f-fish!”

“Fish?” Castiel asked, looking around. “There are no fish here. And my tail? I’ve always had that. You must…ah…”

“What?” Dean tried to catch his breath and remain calm. This Castiel didn’t seem to be threatening him at all, anyway.

“Has a landperson ever seen a seaperson?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Landpeople, like you—have they ever seen a seaperson, like me?”

Dean slowly shook his head. “You’ve seen ‘landpeople?’”

“One time, just one time. We found one but he, I believe it was a male, was dead.”

“What?”

“We found a dead body. That’s how we knew that landpeople were real. So, tell me, do landpeople know about seapeople?”

“Seapeople. Mermaids?”

“Mermaid? A seamaid, you mean?”

“S-sure.”

Castiel splashed his big, fanned tail in the water along the edge of the coast. “Seapeople are what I am, if that’s what you’re talking about.”

“Y-yeah. We uh, we think you’re _mythical creatures_.”

“Oh!” Castiel gasped, his pretty blue eyes widening. “I see!”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Dean cleared his throat. Maybe it was all the saltwater he must have ingested, but the seaperson actually seemed pretty nice. He straightened himself up on the beach and let his legs lay out in front. Castiel was impressed with them and slid closer, lightly touching his clawed fingers to Dean’s feet.

“Hey!” Dean yelped. “Don’t do that, it tickles! Don’t touch me!”

Castiel withdrew his hands to his chest and looked hurt. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize.”

“It’s…it’s okay.”

“I find it incredibly fascinating that you use these, um, bottom arms to move.”

“Legs? You mean legs?”

“These,” said Castiel, gesturing to Dean’s legs.

“Yeah, we call ‘em legs.”

“Interesting.”

“So I guess that was you who did this?” Dean asked. He pointed to the strange blue scar on his arm. Castiel nodded.

“Yes,” he said. “I had been following your moving vessel during the storm, and when I saw you fall from it, I grabbed you. I understand how dangerous that is.”

“Not my best idea, no. But what’s this mark from?”

Castiel crawled up alongside Dean, which made the man a little nervous. He had to admit, though, that the merman was really cute. It looked like he had gills along his jawline, which left Dean to assume that the nose was being used for air breathing.

“That’s where I saved you,” said the merman. He took his right hand and gently laid it over the scar. Dean watched, holding his breath. “You weren’t breathing, so I used my magic to help you.”

“…wait…magic?”

“Yes. Don’t you have magic?”

Dean laughed. “No, ‘course not. Hu— _landpeople_ don’t have magic.”

Castiel looked shocked. “You _don’t_?!” he exclaimed, taking his hand back. “I always—we—everyone—we have just assumed that you have _some_ form of magic.”

“Nope.”

“Interesting, very interesting! Then of course you’re confused about the mark.”

“Heh, yeah.”

Dean stared at the merman. He blinked at Dean, staring back just as deeply. His frame was a little smaller than Dean but it was so lean and muscular. They stared for a moment that was long enough to become awkward, though Castiel didn’t think so.

“So uh,” Dean said, trying to keep the conversation flowing. “This island, it’s a seapeople hangout or something?”

Castiel shook his head. “I come here occasionally. It’s very nice to feel the sun, eat the strange food and harvest the crystals from that cave.”

“That’s cool,” said Dean. He tried to keep his eyes away from the hypnotic stares of the merman. “So uh, can you get me back home?”

“I can, yes,” Castiel agreed, nodding. “I can help you. But you mustn’t tell any of your landpeople about me.”

“Why’s that?”

“The curse!”

“What?!” Dean furrowed his brow. “What curse?”

Castiel hugged himself and suddenly looked very sad. “Oh, no, oh, no,” he muttered to himself. “I knew this was going to be trouble!”

“Why? What’s the curse?”

“The curse! They call it the blessing, actually, but I think it is a curse.”

“What is it?”

“If a seaperson is to meet a landperson, they cannot speak of it to their own kind or else the seaperson _dies!_ ”

“What!”

“Yes! Yes, it’s true! We’re all born knowing that, which is why they don’t like us to talk to landpeople. Oh, no, oh, no…”

“Hey, hey calm down,” said Dean. He actually put out his hand and touched Castiel’s arm. It was a little bit slimy and fairly cold. Castiel turned to him and stared once more, great sadness in his eyes. “I promise I won’t tell anyone, okay? _Promise_. They don’t need to know, anyway.”

“Do you mean this?”

“Sure I do. But here, I’ll make it better—before we go, we can spend some time together on this island. That way, you can get to know me and see that I’m a man of my word.”

“Man of your word?”

“Yep,” Dean said, nodding confidently. Inside he felt like a weirdo, making promises to fishmen he had just met. But if Castiel was telling the truth and he had saved him, he at least owed that to him. “I should probably rest up until I make another journey, anyway.”

“I agree,” said Castiel, smiling. He slid back down into the water with a splash, then reared his head and said, “Do you mind if I return to my kingdom? I’ll come back soon.”

“That’s fine,” said Dean. He waved at Castiel, who was very confused by the gesture. “I’ll just get some things together here.”

The merman nodded and disappeared beneath the surface of the water, leaving Dean alone on the island once more, this time with hope on the horizon.


	3. Hunting

As the sun traveled slowly across the sky, Dean went back to _Mary’s Bounty_ and tried to see if any of his supplies had survived the storm. The boat tipped a bit when he got on board and stepped inside the small cabin. Sure, things had been knocked and broken, one of the windows was cracked and it would need a lot of work; but the food in the stow away compartment was still there. He opened it up and pulled the basket out, then sat on the bench built into the back for a while. He drank down one of the bottles of water and ate a couple pieces of beef jerky. He had a thermos full of soup and, though it smelled okay, he wasn’t sure if it had kept for the duration of his travels.

After eating, Dean got a blanket and took a nap on the boat. Luckily he kept blankets in an airtight container, so they managed to stay perfectly clean and dry even through all of the rain. It was a relief, and Dean was happy to get some well-planned sleep, even with the sun burning bright.

His nap was interrupted when Castiel returned. There was a great bit of splashing around in shallow water and the merman called out, “Dean! Dean!”

Dean startled awake and pushed to blanket away, taking up the basket of food before creaking across the boat. Castiel was down in by the shore. He waved awkwardly.

“Hello, Dean! Were you sleeping?”

“Yeah—it’s fine.” Dean rubbed his eyes and jumped off of the _Mary’s Bounty_. He cracked his back and dropped the basket. “How’s everything?”

“Everything? Everything is good, I believe.”

“Heheh, alright. You eat?”

“Eat what?”

Dean squat down on the sand and put his legs out straight. He brought the basket into his lap and motioned for Castiel to come closer. The merman climbed out of the water and pulled himself onto the beach. He came alongside of Dean’s legs and looked at him curiously. “What is that?”

“Food,” said Dean. He flipped the basket open and brandished the bag of beef jerky.

“What is that?” Castiel asked.

“Jerky.”

“Jerk-ee?” The merman tilted his head, focusing on the bag with great curiosity.

“It’s dried beef.”

“Beeef?”

Dean took a piece of jerky out and popped it into his mouth. “It’s meat. You eat meat, right?”

“Meat? Like fish?”

“Yeah, I guess. But this is a different sorta animal.”

“It looks very hard.”

“Here, try some.”

He tossed a thin piece to Castiel and he caught it easily. The merman observed it in his hand very carefully. “How do you eat this?”

“Chew it. Just try.”

Castiel raised it to his lips and opened up, showing a row of little sharp teeth.

“Woah.”

“What?”

“Your teeth…”

The merman put the jerky inside his mouth and chewed into it. He gnashed his teeth firmly at it and made a quizzical grimace. Dean couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess you’ve never had anything like that before,” he said.

“This animal must be extremely firm.”

“Kinda,” Dean explained, chewing more himself, “But it’s _dried_.”

“What is that?”

“It means we’ve uh, well, it’s like leaving it out up here,” (Dean patted his hand on the hot sand) “Until it gets hard like that.”

“Is that something landpeople do?”

“Yeah. We dry a lotta stuff. Meat, fruit…”

“Frooot?”

“Fruit. Like those oranges.” He pointed to the trees at the top of the rocks.

“Oranges? Those are called _oranges?_ That is the color they are.”

“The name, too; we call ‘em oranges. They’re good for eating.”

“Oh, I know,” Castiel said with a cheerful nod. His tailed flailed. “That is one of the reason I come to this land. My people aren’t fond of me eating land food, but I think it’s very delicious.”

Dean put the jerky away and smiled at the merman. “You’re a pioneer,” he said.

“What is that?”

“Someone who searches out things and is the first to try it.”

“Ahh. Then yes, I suppose I am. Here, come here.”

Castiel wiggled over to one of the streams of spring water that cascaded down the rocks, then jumped up into it and climbed up the side. Dean got to his feet and followed, only he didn’t go in the water of course. The merman had no difficulty swimming up the shallow water and climbing with his arms. He was incredibly strong.

Once they made it to the top, Castiel slithered out of the water and onto the grass. He seemed pleased with himself. “I enjoy this small, short plant.”

“Grass?” Dean asked. He squat down beside him and pointed at the ground covering.

“If that is what you call it.”

“Yeah, we got grass all over the place where I’m from.”

“Really? Isn’t is lovely?”

“I _guess_.”

Castiel rolled back and forth a bit, rubbing his back into the grass with an elated expression. His tailed wiggled and Dean couldn’t take his eyes off of it.

“Do you ever rub yourself around on the _grass?_ ” Castiel asked.

“I don’t.”

“Mmm you should, it’s relaxing.”

“If you say so,” Dean said, making an odd face. He stood up and began picking oranges from the trees.

“Ah!” Castiel exclaimed. “You can reach! How wonderful!”

“What do you do?”

“I shake these plants until they fall.”

“Well just let me get ‘em. How many do you want?”

“Two is good. Thank you, Dean.”

“Sure.”

Dean plucked a couple big fruits down then sat next to the merman again. Castiel had gone a little closer to the stream again so that he could keep his tail wet.

“Orange,” the merman said, taking the fruit Dean offered him.

“Yep.”

Dean dug his nail into the top and began to pull the skin off, but Castiel just opened his mouth and bit right into the skin. He smiled as sticky juice got on his face and dribbled down his neck. Dean blushed.

“Y-you’re supposed to peel it,” he said quickly. “We don’t eat the skin.”

“But it’s very good,” Castiel retorted. He chewed a big wad of orange flesh happily. “I like the taste.”

“As long as you’re happy, I guess,” Dean said with a shrug. He kept peeling and eating his fruit, and after Castiel had finished the first one he clearly was getting a buzz from the sugar. His fish tail began to fidget and wiggle quicker, and his cheek flushed red. “You doin’ okay there, buddy?”

“I like these oranges,” Castiel said with a grin. He took another one and ripped into it. “They have a taste that I’ve never found any place else.”

“Sweet,” Dean told him.

“Sweet?”

“Yeah, that’s how they taste. It’s the sugar in them.”

“Sugar?”

“Yep.”

Dean laughed a little when he saw how twitchy the merman was becoming. It was super cute, especially how his nose wrinkled when he smiled. Dean took note of the lines under his eyes.

“Hey, how old are you?”

“Old? My age?”

“Yeah.”

“Well,” Castiel began, looking pensive, “I hatched about thirty spawns ago.”

“Spawns?”

“Yes,” the merman nodded. “Every twelve moons, our females have eggs that need to be released, so if they have mates, they fertilize them.”

“ _Ooh_ okay. So we’re about the same age. That’s cool.”

“We are? You hatched thirty spawns ago?”

“Well I didn’t hatch.”

Castiel paused, great blue eyes wide as saucers. “You _didn’t?”_

“Nope. Landpeople don’t have eggs. We stay inside our moms until we pop out as babies.”

“Aah, like the whale.”

Dean popped the last section of orange into his mouth. “Sure,” he said, “Like the whale. Hey, what else do you like to eat?”

“Anything I can find,” said the merman. He sucked the juice off of his fingers with great delight.

“You don’t buy food?”

“Buy?”

“Like give money to get it.”

“Money?”

Dean shook his head. “Never mind. So you guys hunt, then?”

“Yes, that is correct. I prefer to _forage_ , as weapons were never my strong suit. I leave that to the other males.”

“You’re more like a female, huh?”

Castiel blushed. The fins at the end of his tail curled in the spring water and his ears twitched. “P-perhaps,” he said in a soft voice.

“Hey, I’m not judging,” Dean told him. He put the orange peels to the ground and pat Castiel on the arm. It was so smooth.

“Right,” the merman hummed. “So, Dean, would you like to swim with me?”

“I don’t think I can swim as good as you.”

“Would you like to try?”

Castiel turned onto his stomach and wiggled his tail excitedly. Dean laughed. “Sure,” he said, “I’ll try.”

Instantly, the merman darted off down the stream of spring water and splashed into the ocean. He moved so fast that Dean could barely focus on him. “Hold on, hold on!” Dean called up, doing his best to get back down the rocks. Castiel was in the water and swimming back and forth with a big, cute smile.

“I’m comin’, I’m comin’,” Dean grumbled with a smile as he managed to jump onto the sand and to the water. He didn’t feel like getting his pants wet again, so he pulled out of them and got into the water just wearing briefs. It was nice and refreshing to be there, though. The water lapped up around him and Castiel swam real close. “Come here,” he said, holding out his hands.

“Um, alright.”

Dean put his hands into the merman’s and squeezed his fingers, then Castiel swam backwards, taking Dean along rather gently. He moved out and away from the island.

“Hey, I don’t wanna go too far,” Dean said, looking back at the land.

“We won’t.”

“Are you showing me something?”

“Yes.”

They stopped swimming but Dean continued to hold the merman’s hands. The sun was starting to move back to the horizon and a couple clouds were popping up. All around them, the ocean rocked and swayed peacefully with very little noise. Castiel wiggled the tip of his tail around Dean’s feet.

“Hey!” Dean yelped. “That tickles!”

Castiel laughed. He was still hyped up on sugar. “Do you like her?”

“Who?”

“The sea.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“You hunt fish too, don’t you?”

Dean cleared his throat. “Yeah, I do…is that okay? I mean, it doesn’t bother you, does it?”

“No, not at all. She always provides.”

Castiel’s face dropped its cheerful expression and he looked over at the sun seriously. Dean watched beads of water running down his smooth body, all the lines in his face and the pretty, saltwater-styled mop of hair on his head. He could understand why all the mythos surrounded mermaids and merpeople always described them as hauntingly beautiful—Castiel was _breathtaking_.

“Dean?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you like me?”

Dean immediately began to blush. “Uh, w-what d’you mean by _like_?”

“Do you enjoy my company?”

“S-sure.”

“And you won’t tell any landpeople about me?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. You’ll be my little secret.”

Castiel chuckled. “I trust you,” he said with a smile.

“Good.”

“Would you like to go back to our island now?”

“Sure.”

Castiel began to swam back to the small shore, holding Dean’s fingers securely in his soft hands. The merman was humming something that was impossible to really hear with the water rushing around them. Dean did his best to tread with his feet, but part of him was feeling dizzy; dizzy that this beautiful, magical creature was clearly very soft for him. “ _Our_ island?” Dean thought, smirking to himself. They got back to the shore and Dean crawled up onto the sand.

“I do love the sea,” Castiel said. He put his elbows on the ground and kept his tail in the water, flapping it gently.

“She’s pretty cool.”

“Do you need anything else?”

“I don’t think so. How ‘bout I spend the night here, then first thing in the morning we’ll head back to my land?”

Castiel nodded, smiling. “I can do that.”

“But I’ll come back, once I get my boat fixed. I’ll remember how I got here and we can meet. I’ll bring some different food for you to eat.”

“That’s very kind of you, Dean.”

“Hey, I got some great friends back on the land, but I won’t turn down the chance to make a real special one on the sea.”

“I’m special?”

“You’re way special, Cas—do they ever call you Cas?”

“Sometimes.”

“Can I?”

“Of course.”

“Well, anyway, I like your company, and if you wanna learn about landpeople then I’d be happy to teach you.”

“And if you want to learn about seapeople, I will be happy to teach you.”

Dean exchanged smiles with the merman. He stood on the sand rather awkwardly and kicked some up. “Well,” he said, “I think I’ll try to make a proper bed over in my boat.”

“Very well. I should return to my people, too. But I will come back in the morning for you, with dolphins to help us you home.”

“That’s awesome. Thanks, Cas. I owe you.”

Cas smiled. “I don’t understand what that means, but thank you. Sleep well.”

“Thanks…”

The merman disappeared beneath the water and Dean watched his shimmering blue form fade into the depths.


	4. The First Return

Dean set up a place to sleep within the cabin of the _Mary’s Bounty_. He tucked away and settled in for the night, hoping that everything would work out well in the morning. The sadness that Sam must have been going through made Dean so upset that we could barely think about it. Disturbed thoughts kept him from sleeping very much; he was up every couple hours, staring at the ceiling of the cabin with an unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach. Eventually the tiredness overtook him and he managed to catch a few Zs. Unfortunately, it was interrupted by a strange sound.

He pushed the blankets off and stood up, careful not to tip the boat at all. Looking out of the cracked window, Dean saw some splashing some ways over in the water. As he stared carefully, he noticed that it was Castiel, breaching out of the surface not unlike a whale. When he jumped out of the sea, his gravelly voice sang out in a language Dean didn’t recognize.

“ _Ah-meh-geh-deh-peh-hoh-ah, voh-el-kee-nee-en!_ ”

Dean leaned up against the glass and listened to Castiel singing. It went on and on, muffled sometimes by splashing and his voice then carrying beneath the water. Part of Dean wanted to interrupt so that he could ask Cas what language it was or they could spend more time together, but ultimately he decided to lay back down. The sooner he slept, the sooner he’d get home to Sam.

Cas’ haunting voice carried Dean off to sleep until the sun began to rise. Right as the first beams of light came over the ocean, the merman must have crawled up onto the beach and started shouting at the boat. “Dean! Dean!”

“Huh?”

Dean stumbled out of his makeshift bed and left the cabin. Castiel was doing his “I’m trying to wave like you do” wave with a big grin. His blue tail splashed in the shallow water and Dean rubbed his eyes.

“Hey…time already?”

“I’ve found many things to help your journey, and I suggest we go soon.”

“Alright, hold on a second.”

With a tired grunt, Dean put his now-dry shirt and pants back on then joined Castiel on the beach. The merman flailed his tail playfully. “So what’ve you got for me?” Dean asked.

“A great pod of dolphins is on the way,” Cas explained, “And they will help carry your moving vessel to the shore.”

“Awesome,” said Dean. He cracked his back and looked around the island. “Not to change the subject or anything, but have you eaten? I’m starving.”

“Aah,” Cas hummed. With a sudden look of inspiration, he turned back to the ocean and scampered his webbed hands all over the sand. He was digging.

“What’re you doing?”

“I’m getting—hnnn—food for you.”

“Uhh…”

Smiling, the merman pulled a couple clams from the water and dropped them onto the dry sand. “Here, Dean. As I’ve said, the sea always provides.”

“ _Uhh…_ ” Trying not to sound rude, Dean winced and muttered, “That’s not exactly the type of food my people can eat.”

“You can’t?” Castiel asked, looking sad. His great big eyes stared at Dean as he cracked open a clam and sucked the raw meat out. Dean flinched. “They’re nice.”

“Yeaaah I don’t like raw clams.”

“Raw?”

“When food isn’t cooked.”

“What is cooked?”

Dean winced again. He came right by Cas and sat on the sand, hands in his lap. “Cooked is what we do with most of our meat. We use heat to change it and make it uh, better to eat.”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“I’ll show you, how ‘bout that? Next time I come out here I’ll bring some stuff to cook with.”

Cas smiled. “That’s exciting.”’

“Heheh, yeah, I guess so.”

The merman ate more clams to Dean’s disgust, and Dean was regretting more and more that he had finished the beef jerky earlier. But Cas was determined to find Dean nourishment—while the man climbed the rocks and brought down a couple of oranges (Castiel declined the offer, since he needed to have great focus for the journey back), Cas went into the ocean and returned with an armful of things. He spread them onto the sand in front of Dean.

“What is all this?” Dean asked, sitting down and peeling the first orange.

“Food that I like to eat. Perhaps you may enjoy it as well.”

“Huh…okay. Well, let’s see what you got.”

First, there were some small fish. Dean said he didn’t want to eat raw fish unless it was prepared better, so Cas slurped them down himself. Then he presented several types of seaweed-like plants. Dean tried some—one wasn’t bad but the rest were too chewy. Finally, Cas offered Dean a small crab.

“We need to cook those, too, and they’re pretty messy.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“I don’t mind.”

Cas cracked the crab open and scraped the raw meat out, partly with his tongue. Dean hadn’t noticed before, but between the sharp little teeth, Cas had a thin, long tongue; about half the width of a human’s but probably twice as long. Dean blushed a bit when he saw it.

“Is something the matter?” Castiel asked.

“N-nah, no worries.”

Dean kept eating his oranges and acted as if nothing happened. At any rate, the merman went about cleaning the crab shells and licking his lips. A light breeze was running over the island and tousling his soft looking dark hair. His eyes were hooded as he looked at his fingers, working the shellfish carefully.

“Hey, Cas?”

“Hm?”

Dean wet his lips. The merman was so pretty, lying on the beach with this childish demeanor even though his face showed signs of age; deep lines around his eyes that somehow made him more attractive.

“What is it, Dean?” Cas tilted his head, eyes sparkling like the ocean behind him.

“I uh, I heard you singing last night.”

“Oh.”

“Is that okay?”

“Yes, yes of course.”

“Well,” Dean cleared his throat, “I thought it was real nice. I liked it. You helped me sleep, actually.”

“Ahh,” Cas hummed, closing his eyes. He finished the crab and put the empty shells onto the beach. Dean took a deep breath and kept looking over at the merman.

“What were you singing?”

“A song that I made up.”

“You thought of that on your own?”

Cas nodded. “Indeed.”

“That’s awesome,” said Dean, flashing a smile. “So uh, what did it mean? That wasn’t English, right?”

“English?”

The merman cocked his head, staring at Dean with such great curiosity that Dean had to fight every urge to lean over and embrace him. He wanted to kiss him…was that right? Those lips were inviting, wide, pale, delicious looking. If Dean didn’t say anything, Castiel would sit there and stare at him, waiting on an answer for a very long time.

“That’s the language we’re speaking,” Dean explained, trying not to gaze endlessly at the creature.

“Oh…no, I was using an older language.”

“What’s it called?”

“I don’t know,” Cas admitted, looking shy all of the sudden, “but we all know it. The elders teach it to us when we’re young.”

“Teach me some.”

“You want to learn?” Cas asked, sticking his thin tongue between his lips for a second. Dean cleared his throat.

“Y-yeah. It sounds cool.”

“Yes, very well,” Cas said, nodding. He climbed further onto the sand and turned around so that he was sitting on his tail right next to Dean. His webbed fingers gently smoothed down his light blue scales and Dean couldn’t take his eyes off him. Cas leaned forward and smiled at Dean.

“ _Soh-bah-mah_ , that means ‘of the water.’ That is how we talk about the sea.”

“ _Soh-bah-mah,_ ” Dean repeated.

“Yes, that’s good. Now, _vee-reh-qua_ , that is where we sleep.”

“Where you sleep? Like a bed?”

“I suppose.”

“Okay. _Vee-reh-qua_.”

“ _Vee-reh-qua soh-bah-mah;_ our bed of the sea.”

Dean chuckled. “That’s cute.”

“Cute?”

“You’re cute.”

Cas’ fin-ears fluttered. His tail flapped. “ _Kah-oh-sah-gee_ ,” the merman continued, acting rather coy now, “is the land, where you come from.”

“ _Kah-oh-sah-gee_ ,” Dean repeated, his cheeks turning red. What an experience to be sharing language with a merperson!

“Yes, that is correct.” Castiel’s gills beat and he watched his hands on his “lap.”

“Can I ask you something?” Dean interrupted before Cas could get another word out.

“Yes?”

“So, so you can breathe out of water?”

“Yes. For a little while.”

“Weird. Okay.”

“It’s weird?”

“Sorry,” Dean apologized, “I shouldn’t have said weird. You’re interesting and kinda different. I like it. I like you a lot.”

“Aah,” Cas said, nodding. He slid himself closer to Dean so they were only a small handful of inches away. “Now, here is another word; _sah-gah_. That means ‘one.’”

“One? _Sah-gah?”_

“Correct. And, and here is another...” Castiel narrowed his eyes and glanced at Dean oddly. They were twinkling and his smooth, wet cheeks were bright red. He seemed to be confused with his emotions.

“What is it?” Dean asked. He propped himself up on his palms behind him, eyes locked on Cas’.

“ _Poh-lah_ ,” Castiel said in a soft little voice. His lips parted as he looked Dean up and down.

“ _Poh-lah_ ,” Dean repeated, “What’s that mean?”

Now Cas’ voice fell into a complete whisper. Dean couldn’t help but smile at how shy and cute and he was being, particularly as he moved right to Dean’s shoulder and said, “a pair.”

“Pair?”

“Y-yes.”

Dean whispered too, mostly just to fit the general mood. “Like, two? A couple?”

“Indeed…”

“Cas, what’s wrong?”

The merman shook his head. He began to speak, but then there was a great roar of water coming from the sea. They both perked up and turned their eyes to the shore, where dolphins were approaching suddenly.

“Ah!” Cas shouted. “There they are!”

He jumped onto his stomach and slid down into the water. It happened so fast that Dean didn’t get a chance to say anything, but he did get to his feet and walked to the shore. Castiel had disappeared into the sea but his head soon popped up alongside many dolphin fins.

“We are all accounted for!” Cas said.

“Okay!” Dean replied. “How are they gonna move my boat?”

“The vessel?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Dean started heading towards the _Mary’s Bounty_.

“They can push!” Cas yelled. “Can you bring your um—boat—into the ocean?”

“I can try!”

Using a couple ropes around the boat, Dean backed into the water and gave a few tugs. “DAMN!” he shouted. “It’s so fuckin’ stuck! Can you help me?”

Cas swam around right up to Dean and held his hands out. “How?”

“Take this,” said Dean, tossing one of the ropes to Cas, who immediately grabbed it tightly, “and pull, pull real hard, okay?”

“Yes.”

They grabbed the ropes and pulled back, straining and grunting (well, Dean did at least, it came rather easily to Cas) until _Mary’s Bounty_ began to creak and slide forward. She got into the water and the dolphins immediately rushed around.

“Woah, woah!” Dean yelled, being pushed by the animals. He nearly fell over and Cas laughed, his nose wrinkling up and fins fluttering.

“They’re fine,” said Cas, “They will help.”

The dolphins bumped and prodded at the boat until she was completely afloat. Dean was startled at first, but when he looked to Cas and saw him cooing and muttering to the dolphins, who seemed to respond at every word.

“Awesome!” Dean shouted. “Now I’m gettin’ on.”

He swam around to one side and took the steps up onto the deck. The boat was rocking and tipping in the usual pleasantness, and when it started to sail on, Dean couldn’t help but smile. Knowing he’d be home soon was great, but…

“It will take some movement of the sun,” Cas said over the rushing of the water. He was still at the front, holding onto the rope and pulling the boat along. “But we will get you home.”

“Thanks,” said Dean.

Leaning over the ledge, he watched Cas and the dolphins pushing and leaping around the boat. It was amazing. And Cas—Cas was beautiful. His muscled body twisted about as he tugged _Mary’s Bounty_ along. And the tail shimmered beneath the ocean’s surface like a handful of jewels.

“Dean!” Cas shouted, snapping Dean out of his ogling.

“Yeah?”

“There’s a great school of tuna up ahead!”

“Really?!”

A jolt of excitement surged through Dean’s body. Was it true? Would he get home _and_ bring back a full load of fish?!

He ran to the back and cast out his net. It scattered over the water and suddenly a billion bright, healthy tuna came rushing into it. Dean’s face lit up with such joy that he could hardly contain himself. Imagine how Sam would feel?

“Awesome!” Dean yelled. “This is awesome!”

The fish filled the net to the brim. It was the biggest catch he had ever had, and of the greatest size of fish as well. He couldn’t thank Castiel enough, but the merman seemed content to poke along and continue towing the boat.

A few hours later, the shoreline of Gunspier began to show up again. Dean was standing on the front of _Mary’s Bounty_ , a full net of fish behind him and his hometown ahead. Everything was going to work out. He would have cooked food again and even better, he would have money after the fish were sold.

“There’s enough gas left that I can make it home,” Dean said over the edge of the boat, down to Cas, “You can go so there’s no chance of getting caught.”

Cas slowed down and released the rope. He looked up at Dean and frowned. “But, I will see you again?”

“Yeah,” Dean nodded, “Let’s meet on that island in a—in—how ‘bout next _moon?_ I’ll be there.”

“Yes!”

“Like that?”

“Yes! I’ll see you on the next moon, at our island!”

Dean started the engine with a roar and the dolphins all swam off by Cas’ chortled words. He waved at Dean, smiling real big, as he sailed back towards Gunspier.


	5. Back from the Dead

_Mary’s Bounty_ smoothly sailed right back into the dock that she always used. Dean tied her to the pier, cut off the engine and hobbled out. He was finally back in Gunspier; an idea that felt so distant that he could only truly believe it when he saw his brother Sam running down the pier at him.

“DEAN?! DEAN?!” he was shouting, his face blotched with red. It appeared as though he hadn’t slept since Dean vanished.

His long legs nearly tripped him up as he met Dean on the pier. They instantly embraced and Sam squeezed him a little too tight.

“H-hey—Sammy,” Dean choked out, “I-I’m—back!”

“Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Dean, Dean!”

Sam was beside himself. He kept touching Dean’s face and hugging him over and over again as he cried. “I thought you were dead! I thought—oh, Jesus—I thought I’d never see you again…what happened?!”

“Got lost out there,” Dean said rather calmly, “But as you can see, I made it back alright.”

“I-I don’t believe it,” Sam sobbed, “I don’t believe you’re back. Oh, God, if you knew what I’ve been through—what we’ve _all_ been through…Bobby’s a mess, Ellen can barely function…but…”

“I’ll tell you about it later. Right now, I need you to help me out.”

“Sure, anything. With what?”

Dean went around to the back of _Mary’s Bounty_ and wheeled up the net. His great catch of tuna pulled from the water and Sam’s eyes bulged. “Holy crap!” he shouted. “There _was_ a lot of tuna!”

“Hell yeah!” Dean answered, grinning almost maniacally. “Get the truck so we can ship these guys out and reel in the bucks.”

Sam insisted that he take care of the business, since Dean had just been through God-knows-what and he smelled horrible. Dean wouldn’t argue with that. He promptly headed to the little house at the end of Chisholm lane with a smile on his face. As he ascended the stilts, it occurred to him how lucky he was to be alive. By all means, he should have been dead. The storm should have killed him. He should have drowned. How did a merman happen upon him and save his life? He ran those thoughts in his head numerous times as he showered. Despite being safe and sound at home, part of him just wanted to get back on the boat and be with Castiel again.

After a hot cup of coffee and some down time, the news of Dean’s return was starting to bring a lot of company to their house. Everyone is Gunspier was calling, and half of them turned up after doing so. Ellen, who ran the main grocers in town, came first. She banged on the door loudly and when Dean opened it up, she gave him a strong hug. “Figured we’d never see you again,” she muttered into the embrace.

“Well, I’m back.”

Ellen was middle-aged and the lines on her face from sun damage made her look even older. She stared up at Dean with a couple tears in her eyes.

“I wish I could’ve told you all that I _was_ alive,” Dean said.

“That don’t matter anymore,” Ellen answered, shaking her head. “What’s important is that you’re okay. But I hope you’ve learned your lesson!”

“What?”

Ellen suddenly slapped Dean across the face.

“Hey! The heck’s that for?”

“For goin’ out when you knew a storm was coming! Are you dumb or somethin’?!”

“But Bobby said there was tuna—“

“It don’t matter what Bobby said!” Ellen barked. She pointed a stern finger at Dean but more tears were falling from her eyes. “Now when the paper says it’s gonna storm, you don’t go out!”

“Yeah well I know that _now_.”

“Oooh, Dean, you’re lucky I got on with your folks so well or else I’d _really_ give you what for.” Ellen put her hands on her hips and gave Dean a mighty fierce scowl. Sam and Dean had always said, somewhat jokingly, that Ellen was like the mother they never had.

“Damn, Ellen, is that a threat?” Dean asked, chuckling.

“It sure is!” she said in a huff. “And don’t you dare go blamin’ Bobby for your little escapades!”

“I’m not blaming him.”

“Good—don’t!”

“Nice to see you too, Ellen.”

Ellen sighed. She slumped her shoulders and wiped her eyes. “Dean,” she said softly, “Let me know if you need anything.”

“I will.”

“You take care of yourself.”

“You too, Ellen. And don’t worry about me, I’m a big boy.”

“I know.”

“Gotta get back to the shop?”

“’Course.”

“I’ll stop by when I’m out next.”

“It’ll be good to see you again, Dean. Get some rest.”

She gave Dean one last hug before going back down the stairs and to her car. Dean stood in the threshold, folding his arms and gave out a sigh. The roar of Ellen’s pickup truck lessened as it drove away from the house. Poor Ellen and poor Bobby. _Poor Sam_. Without Dean, Sam had nobody. He couldn’t imagine how alone he must have been feeling. It almost hurt Dean when he compared the happiness he enjoyed with Cas next to the bottomless misery Sam had gone through.

Dean figured it would be wise to take a nap, so he laid on the sofa for about an hour, but after a weird dream he thought he’d go and see Bobby. They already talked on the phone, but in the dream, Dean was going out to that island with Bobby. They met Castiel there and got along well. Upon waking, Dean was thinking about that conversation he had with Sam before he left. “ _He’s talking to mermaids or something?_ ”

He put on some shoes and went to go see the old man. Bobby lived just two streets down to Dean walked there. Some people were out in their yards, heading back from the shore with buckets of fish or carrying vegetables home. They waved at Dean, a couple stopped to chat but when he said he was going to see Bobby, they let him go.

The rambler at the corner had probably looked the same since it was built. A 50-something Chevy pickup sat in the yard, slightly dirty but still in working order, and the porch was sloped from years of ocean weather. That was Bobby’s house, and even after he passed away, Dean thought, it would still be Bobby’s house.

“Sea’s been kind to ya,” was the first thing Bobby said when he opened to door to Dean. He was somewhere close to sixty with a scruffy beard and a baseball cap that Sam and Dean swore couldn’t come off of his head.

“I wasn’t gone that long, y’know,” Dean said, grinning.

“Well come on in, come on in.”

He followed Bobby inside and took a seat on his old sofa. It creaked as he plopped down. Bobby went into the kitchen and asked Dean if he wanted anything but Dean refused the offer. Instead, he said, “So you were right about the tuna. I got Sam taking the load to Dunny, maybe even Maison.”

Bobby chuckled from in the kitchen. Some glasses rattled around and he returned with what looked like an old fashioned of whiskey. He joined Dean on the sofa and took a big sip, smacking his lips. “Told ja,” he said.

“Yeah…it was…it was different.”

Dean had his elbows on his knees and hands together, head turned down to stare at them. He wet his lips and sighed, smiling a bit. Bobby was keenly watching. “Somethin’ happen to ya out there?”

“I got caught in a storm, Bobby. Nearly died. That counts as something, huh?”

“It does, it does,” Bobby said, sipping his drink again. He looked around his humble abode and fell silent for a moment. Dean gave him time but wondered what he was thinking. “You’ve changed.”

“I almost _died!_ Of course I’ve changed!” Dean laughed as he said this. His cheeks felt hot. When he looked at the old man, he was just drinking his whiskey humbly beneath his hat. Something in the air thickened.

“Y’know, I’ve been growin’ tomatoes.”

“What?”

“Tomatoes. I’ve been growin’ tomatoes.”

Dean shot an odd look at Bobby, but the older man wasn’t moved. “I ain’t supposed to tell anybody ‘bout them.”

“What, the tomatoes?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“’Cause I really like ‘em, and I don’t want anyone ta bother with ‘em.”

Dean was still confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Bobby. This isn’t your first drink of the day, is it?”

But suddenly Bobby looked at Dean very, _very_ seriously. He held the glass close to his face and stared, muttering, “don’t tell nobody ‘bout them tomatoes, alright?”

“Uh, sure. I won’t.”

“An’ if you find any tomatoes, don’t tell _nobody_ , ya hear me?”

“Right…”

“I mean it, boy! Keep the tomatoes to yerself!”

“Bobby, are you trying to tell me something important?”

“I sure am, Dean, now listen up—ya got the look on yer face like you’ve done found the most beautiful, prettiest damned tomatoes out there. _Don’t tell nobody ‘bout them tomatoes!_ ”

Then Dean understand. He got it. He nodded. “I won’t,” he promised. “But uh, is it uh, you think it’s okay for me to like them? The tomatoes, I mean. If I wanna go see the tomatoes, is that okay?”

“It’s fine, Dean, it’s fine. You can love them tomatoes…” Bobby looked sad as he set down his glass. His fingers remained on the edge and he stared at them, pressing his lips together. His voice grew softer. “Lord knows I do.”

“They’re special,” said Dean. “Those tomatoes kept me alive.”

“I know, son.”

Dean closed his eyes and imagined Cas in front of him. He wanted to touch that merman again, to hear his soft singing voice and watch his pretty tail swishing around in the water.

“I just wanna see the tomatoes again so bad. You don’t think they do it on purpose, do you?”

“Nah,” Bobby said, shaking his head. “Tomatoes don’t know they’re special. They’re just curious, is all. Curious an’ beautiful.”

“Yeah…”

“But ya gotta take of yer brother too, now,” Bobby said, his voice getting less hazy, “He’s been a real mess since ya disappeared. Damned boy didn’t eat or sleep, I think. Make sure you ain’t goin’ out into any more storms, ya hear?”

“Ellen already gave me that little chat.”

Bobby chuckled. “Sure she did. An’ she’s right, too. I’m sure yer thinkin’ it was lucky ‘cause you met them tomatoes, and that’s exactly what it was—luck. Don’t be pushin’ those sorta things anymore.”

“I know, I know.”

“Just be glad ya got them tomatoes now.”

“I am,” Dean said, nodding with a nostalgic smile, “I am.”

“Y’know how long I’ve been dyin’ to tell someone ‘bout my tomatoes?” Bobby asked. He looked at Dean quickly.

“Nope.”

“Years, boy, years. I’m sure ya know the promise, that ya can’t be talkin’ ‘bout ‘em and whatnot.”

“Sure.”

“I’ve been keepin’ that secret since you were born, Dean. Even if I _could_ talk, nobody’d believe me. But ya do, don’t ya?”

“I do, Bobby. I really do. I know what I saw.”

“Yeah,” Bobby said, nodding. He forced a little, bittersweet smile. “I remember th’ look on my face when I came home from findin’ the tomatoes. Just like that. Misty eyed, a spring in my step an’ a smile that ya just can’t wipe off. That’s real beauty, Dean—ain’t nothin’ in the world as pretty as a tomato.”

“I know,” Dean agreed.

“You take care of yer brother, ya hear me?”

“I will, Bobby. Don’t worry about that.”


	6. On the Vine

Dean was different. It wasn’t daunting or dangerous, but Sam noticed that Dean had small changes to his activity. Even after saying he would explain what happened, Sam never got much of a story other than “the storm knocked me out and I was stuck for two nights.” Sam didn’t press with questions and let Dean keep it to himself, but he also took note of Dean’s general disposition; while the older brother was always a chipper guy, since he returned from his journey he smiled more. He laughed a lot but didn’t tease Sam like he used to. When they shared something funny, Dean would just chuckle and stare into the distance, muttering a phrase like “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of that...”

The new behavior was not limited to their conversations, either. Over the following nights, Sam realized that his brother was often up at night. Sam would get out of bed to use the bathroom or get a drink of water, and upon walking by Dean’s door which was slightly ajar, hear him moving within.

Dean’s window faced the open sea, overlooking the pier where _Mary’s Bounty_ was tied off. When he found himself unable to sleep, he would get out of bed and go to the window, staring out and thinking about Castiel. Was he singing? Was he happy? Did he miss Dean, too? He slipped his hand beneath his sleeve and touched the strange, blue scar. As he ran his fingers over the mark, he wished he was touching Cas. So far, he had done a good job keeping it a secret from Sam—if anybody noticed, it would be difficult to talk his way out.

“ _Cas…_ ”

The words were on his lips often. The merman swam through his dreams and his continuous thoughts. Even as Dean sat with his brother over breakfast, discussing their plans for the day, he was wondering about Castiel. When they walked through town and to their favorite fishing spot, burning daylight relaxing, he was thinking about the fishperson. Everything was just a countdown until the full moon, when he would finally set sail again to see him.

“What? Alone? Are you kidding?” Sam asked when Dean gave the announcement. “After all of that, even?”

“Don’t worry about me, Sammy, I know what I’m doing.”

“That seems really dangerous and irresponsible of you,” Sam insisted, folding his arms. “Do you realize what I went through while you were gone?”

“Yeah, and I’m sorry, but this time I know where I’m going, the weather is fine and you have no reason to worry. Now stop sounding like my wife and let me get ready.”

“Mmmh…”

Sam, frustrated, turned around and returned to his room. He couldn’t deal with his brother’s arrogance today, not after what had happened. Unfortunately, Dean was enamored with the idea of seeing Castiel again that he couldn’t be bothered to apologize to Sam. Instead, he packed up a bunch of supplies and left. First he had to swing by Ellen’s grocer to buy special food for his ocean-dwelling friend.

“ _Really?_ You’re headin’ out _again?_ ”

Ellen couldn’t believe it when she heard Dean explain.

“Well, yeah, there’s some business I gotta take care of.”

“An’ leave your brother alone, worryin’ about you all over again?”

“No storms this time, Ellen.”

Dean spoke very casually as he went down an aisle, picking items and tossing them into his hand basket. He came back to the register and set them all in front of Ellen. “I’ll probably come back with a new haul of fish, too!”

Ellen shook her head. She began to ring up the groceries in silence.

“What?” Dean asked.

“Nothin’.”

They stood in silence for a moment as Ellen put his products into paper bags. Dean rapped his fingers on the counter. “Sam’s fine,” he said shortly, “Don’t worry about him.”

“I ain’t _worried_ about him!” Ellen suddenly barked. She keyed in some prices onto the register and the total binged out. Dean gave her cash reluctantly and she continued to fuss. “It just says a lot about your character, leavin’ him alone after you damn near died! _We thought you were dead,_ it ain’t been easy!”

“Ugh. Relax, okay?” Ellen glared. “It’s practically for work, anyway. There’s nothing to worry about. I’ll be home in a couple days with more fish to sell and not a scratch on me. That’s a promise, alright?”

The woman sighed and said nothing more, just continued shaking her head as Dean left with his purchases. He tried to blow all the negativity away—he would be seeing Castiel shortly! Once everything was loaded up into _Mary’s Bounty_ , Dean doubled checked it all and went on his way. He had plenty of extra gas, extra food, a comfortable amount of blankets for sleeping plus a few things Cas might enjoy learning about.

He sailed for some time, hoping he was on course. The further he went, the harder time he had believing there was actually a land mass out there. The water was so deep, and yet he had indeed been on that island. Or maybe he didn’t? A tinge of fear pulsed through his body as he considered that Castiel had all been an illusion, brought on by head trauma and or too much salt. But he checked his bicep and saw that the blue handprint was still there—no way was he hallucinating that.

It took him longer than he thought. The sun was starting to set before he saw a peak of land in the distance. He had really hoped to find it before the day went dark to avoid hitting anything, but beggars can’t be choosers. Then his bad feelings were zapped away at the sight of his merman.

In the dimming daylight, upon the banks of the island with several of those glowing crystals from the cavern, Castiel was laying on his tail, sitting up with his hands propping him behind. When he saw _Mary’s Bounty_ approaching, his fanned out tail began to flap ecstatically. He waved.

“DEAN!”

The boat docked on the shore and Dean jumped down with a couple bags to greet Cas, who had popped into the water and appeared right by him.

“Hey, Cas.”

“I thought you would be sooner.”

“Yeah, me, too. Sorry ‘bout that. I guess it was farther than I thought.”

The merman cocked his head, bobbing gently in the shallow water.

“Did you get lost?” he asked.

“N-nah, not really. But hey, I’m here now, right? And I got a bunch of stuff to show you.”

“Really?”

“Yep,” Dean said with confidence. He dropped the bags onto the ground and squat beside them as he began rummaging through. With the sunlight fading fast, he thought he’d go easy on most of his surprises. The first thing he did was take out some dry logs he brought and began to make a fire pit.

“What are you doing?” Castiel asked. He slithered up onto the shore and got close to where Dean was working.

“Building a fire.”

“Fire?”

Dean smirked.

“You don’t know what fire is, do ya?”

“No.”

“Well, I’ll show you. Here, watch.”

Dean lit a match and set it into the wood, which made Cas jump back some ways, staring with wide eyes. He seemed terrified and startled.

“It’s okay,” Dean coaxed, “As long as you don’t touch it.”

“W-what is it?” Cas asked, slowly crawling closer again. Dean watched as the small flames began to catch and grow larger, building up some heat. The merman was still very, very cautious.

“It’s just fire. It’s heat, basically, but it can hurt you. We use it for cooking. Like this, watch.”

While Cas kept about two or three feet away from the fire, Dean casually took some meat he had brought in a small cooler out and onto a skewer. He held it over the fire and flames began to lick around the sides. They sat there in silence for several moments until the meat began to cook and smell delightful. Cas sniffed.

“What is that?” he asked.

“It’s cooking, like I said.”

He kept sniffing, somewhat entranced. “It smells incredible. I can’t even describe it properly.”

“Then don’t worry about it. Hey, how ‘bout you go get us some fish? Are they still swimming around this time of day?”

“Some, yes.”

“Get little ones. I’ll show you how we like ‘em.”

“Very well.”

Cas slid off of the beach and back into the water. As Dean tended to the meat, he smiled happily to himself at being in Castiel’s presence again. The fish-creature was so curious and adorable.

“How is this?”

Cas’ voice called out when he reappeared, holding a couple small fish in his hands. Dean nodded and took them from him. He quickly chopped the heads off with a utility knife and bunged them onto more skewers. “Take this,” he said, holding one out to Cas, “and put it into the fire like this. It’ll cook.”

“Alright,” Cas said a little uneasily. He gripped the skewer tightly in his webbed hand and placed it among the flames, just as Dean was doing. They sat like that for a while, saying little more than a couple words to each other as the meat cooked.

Dean’s was done soonest, of course, but he took it out of the fire to cool down for a while. He figured Cas wouldn’t want to eat anything remotely warm, so he didn’t mind waiting. When it was ready, he took the fish from Cas and replaced it with the skewer of meat.

“Try it,” he said.

Cas bared his small, pointed teeth and pulled a chunk of roasted meat off of the skewer. He chewed it politely, eyes focusing oddly as he tried to take in the new tastes.

“Like it?” Dean asked.

“I do,” the merman said once he swallowed.

Dean took the fish from the flames finally, set them aside and ate some meat while they cooled. When it was all ready, he offered the fish and their entirety to Cas.

“All of this is for me?”

“Yep, go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

Castiel’s eyes glittered in the firelight, fixed on Dean. Maybe his cheeks blushed but it was hard to tell. He began to rip into the fish and clearly it was the greatest discovery he had ever made; his big tail began to flap, beating against the sand in thrill and his ear-fins fluttered. “Th-this is incredible!” he exclaimed. “Incredible!”

Dean laughed. “I’m glad you like it,” he said, smiling at Cas with love-struck eyes. He thought he could have sat there and watched the merman forever.

“I’m impressed, quite impressed by this method of preparing food that landpeople have found. Tell me, Dean, do all of you ‘cook’ in this manner?”

“Oh, yeah. It’s totally normal for us.”

“Amazing!”

“Heheh, yeah, I guess it is.”

When all of the food was eaten, Dean remarked that he should sleep in preparation for a busy day tomorrow. He brought his blankets and pillows down the beach, beside the fire, and set up a bed for himself.

“You can’t stay out of water long enough to sleep here, right?”

“I’m afraid not,” Cas admitted with some disappointment. “But I can stay for some time.”

Dean got beneath the covers and smiled. “What do seapeople do when they really like each other?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well uh,” Dean cleared his throat, “Do you guys date? Make couples? Get married? You’ve gotta reproduce somehow.”

“Ah, yes,” Cas said, smiling as he suddenly realized what Dean was getting at, “You must be referring to _mating_.”

“Sure.”

“When two of us form a strong bond, they mate. Mated pairs then share their lives together.”

“That’s nice,” said Dean. He rolled onto his back and watched the stars. “How do these ‘mated pairs’ show affection for each other?”

“I don’t know all of the details as I have never mated.”

Dean’s eyes widened. “Wait, _never?_ ”

“No, certainly not,” Cas explained rather simply. “I have yet to find a suitable mate.”

“Oh, alright,” Dean agreed after he suppressed a yawn.

“You should sleep now,” Cas said. Dean had to agree with that. “I will leave you, but return in the morning.”

“Sure.”

“Good night, Dean.”

Cas leaned over the man and smiled boyishly.

“Night, Cas.”

The sound of him sliding down the beach and plunking off into the water was the last thing Dean remembered hearing from that day.


	7. The Courting of Castiel

The sea was silent as sunrise approached. Gentle waves stroked at the shoreline while Dean slept peacefully in his heap of blankets, even though he had shifted around and kicked most of them off. It was unclear whether or not Castiel had gone home or slept near the island, but as soon as the sun began to come up, he was on the sand again and slithered up to Dean’s side. He watched him attentively, thinking about their parting conversation the night before. Mating…Cas had never met the right mate. In fact, he wasn’t even sure how a merperson went about finding one. Most of his friends back home were mated but he hadn’t bothered to ask. Was it a physical attraction? If he let his mind wander to the days when his friends had not found mates, he began to recall that they first picked out suitable mates based on how they looked. But—he never thought any seaperson was “attractive” in such a way.

After a few minutes of contemplation while looking at Dean, Cas decided to give the man a light touch as he muttered, “Dean…it’s morning…”

“Hoohh…whuzzuh…huh?”

Dean grunted and groaned gently as he stirred, sleepily reaching for Cas’ hand. The merman let their fingers touch.

“Do you have plans for this day?” Castiel asked gently.

“Sure do,” was Dean’s groggy reply. His fingertips glosses over Cas’ claws and he jumped up, startled at what he had felt. “Woah…”

“I’m sorry,” Cas apologized as he withdrew his hand. “Did I hurt you?”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I was just startled.”

Dean rubbed his eyes, stretched and began to get up, all the while Cas remained on his stomach, propping himself up on his hand. The resist to eyeball the merman constantly was nearly impossible to curb.

“So,” Dean began, clearing his throat, “Thought I’d show you some new stuff today. Landpeople stuff and all that.”

“Good!” Castiel beamed.

“I’m gonna start with some of those oranges,” Dean said as he properly got to his feet. He dusted and remaining sand off himself and began teetering over towards the rocks.

“I’ll just wait here,” said Cas.

“Sure.”

In a few mere moments, Dean had gone up the rocks and came back with several oranges supported in a makeshift pouch made with his shirt. He plopped down on the blankets and dropped the fruit between him.

“I’ve had these,” Cas said.

“Yeah, I know. I’m gonna do something different, watch.”

Taking one of his supply bags, Dean pulled out a cup and a small, wooden citrus reamer. Cas crawled closer and curled his tail up on the blanket. He sat right next to Dean and watched intently. Dean smiled. He took his utility knife, sliced an orange in half then began to squeeze the juice out of one piece. The reamer pulverized a thin stream of liquid down into the cup.

“Wh-what is the purpose of this?” Cas asked, ice-blue eyes open wide.

“Makin’ juice.”

“ _Juice?_ ”

“Yep. Here.”

After a few more oranges were squeezed clean, (Cas nibbled on one of the discarded skins) Dean demonstrated how to drink the juice. He swallowed then handed the cup over to the merman. “Give it a try,” he said.

“I’m not sure how to do this.”

“Hold it up to your lips, open your mouth a little then suck it down…don’t take too much, since you don’t wanna choke.”

“I will try.”

Not unlike a toddler, Cas held the cup securely between both hands, lifted it to his mouth and attempted to drink the orange juice. It dribbled down his chin but he managed to take some. With a swallow, he brought the cup down then gave Dean a pleasant smile. “This is incredible,” he said, sounding somewhat mystified.

“That good, huh?” Dean chuckled. Cas licked his lips with his strange, thin tongue and seemed to be getting buzzed already.

“Is this a method of eating that all landpeople know?” he asked with an excited tone. His tail flapped happily.

“Oh, yeah, totally,” Dean agreed. Cas offered him the cup back but he politely refused it. “You go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

Dean went to his bag and brought out a loaf of bread and a little tub of butter. “Here’s something else,” he said. Cas nearly dropped the cup.

“What is _that?_ ” he asked, completely thrown off by the bread.

“Bread.”

“What is it?”

“We make it out of…”

Dean’s voice trailed off while he pulled a piece off. It occurred to him that explaining the entire process of bread making probably wasn’t worth it.

“We make it out of plants and stuff. Landpeople eat it all the time. Try some.”

Using his knife, he spread a little butter over the chunk of bread then exchanged it for the cup of juice. Cas, cautious as ever, examined the food in his hands thoroughly before taking a tiny bite. Those sharp teeth pierced the bread with ease and he chewed it carefully.

“Hmm…”

“How is it?” Dean asked, watching Cas with a big smile.

“Hard to describe,” Cas admitted with his mouth full. He swallowed it down then took another bite, perhaps hoping he could get a better idea of what to say. Unfortunately the words never came, and he finished the bread without a decent description. Dean had some himself and gave Cas another piece.

“So how’re you liking landpeople food so far?” Dean asked.

“Quite different, but an enjoyable experience.”

“Sweet.”

They finished off the bread and the juice as the sun continued to climb into the sky. A light pink color coated the island and faded into pale blue. Though Castiel kept his eyes fixed on the ocean, Dean was watching him. More than anything did he want to grab the merman and give him a kiss, but he was entirely uncertain of what his response would be, so he controlled him. Instead, he took a more diplomatic approach.

“So Cas,” he began. “Have you been thinking about our talk last night?”

“Which one?”

“About ‘mating.’”

“Oh…”

Cas’ face lit up and his ear-fins twittered. He stared down at the last bit of bread in his clawed fingers and turned it over a few times.

“I have…”

“You think about how seapeople show affection?”

“I _did_ , but—I’m still not sure.”

“Haven’t you seen them do anything?”

“I wouldn’t know exactly.”

“Huh,” Dean huffed. Then he cleared his throat, picking up some courage. “Well uh, you wanna know how landpeople do it?”

“Do what?”

The man let out a nervous chuckle. “Show that we really like each other.”

“Oh,” Cas nodded, stealing a quick glance at Dean. “I suppose so…are you telling me that you care for me?”

Blushing, Dean said, “Well uh, yeah, I guess I do. How do _you_ feel?”

Cas held a hand over his mouth and made a shy, cute face with his eyes closed. His jaw moved then he looked at Dean and spoke from beneath his hand. “We’re told not to speak with landpeople. Not to befriend them. Not to have… _feelings_.”

“You have feelings for me?”

The merman blinked softly. He brought his shoulders up and whispered, “yes.”

“Hey, that’s fine,” Dean coaxed. He put his hand onto Cas’ shoulder and rubbed his smooth skin real soft. “I have feelings for you, too, like I just said.”

They sat there for a moment and said nothing, Dean stroking his arm and Cas still turned away. The merman finally put his hand down from his face but continued to look down.

“Then, then what do landpeople do when they have feelings for each other?”

“There’s a lot of things.”

Finally, the merman peered back at Dean. His cheeks were pink.

“Kissing, for example,” Dean continued.

“Kissing?”

“You ever seen your people do that?”

“I’m not sure what that is.”

“When we put our mouths together. It’s fine. We do it when we really like the other person.”

“Aah,” Cas said, a glint of realization in his eyes, “Yes, I believe I _have_ seen that!”

“Ever done it?” Dean giggled.

“No, as I have told you, I am not mated.”

“But you haven’t even been kissed?”

Cas shook his head.

“Well,” Dean hummed, “I would _really_ like to kiss you.”

“Ah…”

Castiel turned an even brighter hue of rose. His heavily hooded eyes flickered over Dean’s body and paused at his face.

“You want to?” Dean asked, quieter this time. Cas replied with a nod but then admitted, “I don’t know how.”

“Like this,” said Dean. He leaned forward to the merman and gently cupped both hands around his face. The gills felt strange beneath his fingers, but he held him securely and pulled their lips together. Cas didn’t move much, but when they moved away, he was staring at Dean with stars in his eyes. “How was that?”

“Good,” Cas said in a tiny voice. “May we do it again?”

“Sure.”

Dean brought them together once more, but this time Cas placed his hands upon Dean’s chest. His claws lightly scratched over the fabric of his shirt and Dean kissed him deeper. His head tilted and his tongue battered its way between the merman’s lips. He felt over the sharp teeth then touched their tongues together. Dean grunted loudly and pulled away.

“Is something wrong?” Cas asked. His face with bright red and he looked slightly disoriented.

“Nothin’,” Dean groaned. He shifted the seat of his pants, trying to ignore the growing boner. It begged the question—how the fuck do merpeople fuck?

“Are you in pain here?” Cas pointed to Dean’s crotch.

“N-nah, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. But hey, let me ask you something…we talked about mating, right?”

“Yes,” Cas answered softly. He brought his hands back to his lap and peered down at them.

“Do you know _how_ you guys do it?”’’’’

“Not exactly.”

“You never got curious?”

“No. But I know that the act will fertilize eggs during the spawning season, and it happens _here_.”

Castiel gestured towards the front of his tail, about eight inches down from where the flesh ended and scales began. If he had legs, his genitals would be in that area.

Dean was curious about this. He leaned closer to the tail and looked. “Here? How?” he asked, but as the words came out, he realized there was a very thin slit in the scales. A tiny hole, not much bigger than an earhole or nostril, was at the base. Dean was surprised he had never noticed that before.

With Cas’ hand down there, the slit seemed to be as long as his fingertip to palm. “I’m not sure how it works,” Cas admitted, touching lightly, “but this is the area that they combine.”

“What’s the hole?”

“For my waste.”

“ _Oh_.”

Well, anal sex seemed to be out of the question. That hole was far too tight and fixed to get anything but maybe a little finger in there.

“So you’ve never opened this up or anything?” Dean asked, turning his attention to the slit again.

“No, it’s sensitive, very sensitive. If the area is ever prodded or poked, it causes me significant pain.”

“Weird.”

“I suppose.”

Dean really wanted to put his hand over it, but he decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Instead, he tried to change topics.

“I wanna show you something cool.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, here…”

Going back to _Mary’s Bounty_ quickly, Dean returned with a big, inflatable beach ball. Cas had still been examining his genital slit, clearly as curious as Dean now, but when he returned with the ball he looked up at gasped.

“What is that?!”

“A ball.”

“ _Ball?_ ”

“It’s sort of a toy.”

“ _Toy_?”

“Jeez, your people are really different than mine. Here, go get into the ocean and I’ll show you how it works.”

“Yes.”

Cas scampered off of the blanket and slid down, diving straight into the water. He supported his tail in the shallow area and stuck his torso out. Dean remained on the beach and lightly tossed the ball up into the air. It was made of a couple bright colors and Cas was mesmerized by its movement.

“I’ll toss it to you, and then you hit it back to me. Give it a try.”

“Alright.”

Dean gave the beach ball a great throw, high up into the air, and it came down the Cas suddenly. He didn’t manage to hit it, so it just smacked against the water. When Cas realized it floated, he was even more impressed.

“Incredible!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, but you didn’t hit it!” Dean chuckled, rubbing his hands together. “Now toss it back to me and I’ll show you. Just pick it…yeah…just pick it up and throw it.”

“I’ll try.”

Cas had the ball in his hands. His claws nearly pierced the thin plastic but then his smacked it hard. It didn’t get too far, but just enough for Dean to dive and pound it up with his fist. The ball once again flew into the air, Cas’ eyes fixed upon it, then it came down to him and he smacked it with his fist. It went hurling back to Dean and he caught it.

“Good! Just like that!”

“What is the purpose of this?” Cas asked rather seriously.

“It’s fun, that’s all.”

“Fun…”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm…”

Cas stared at Dean while he was holding the ball, a contemplative look on his face.

“Throw it back, then?” he asked.

“Yeah, here goes!”

The ball came soaring back at Cas and he slapped it back over to Dean. Dean pushed it up into the air quite high and Cas, sporting a burst of excitement, leaped from the water and smacked it with the end of his tail. The ball went flying over Dean’s head and stopped itself on the rocks.

“Wooooah!” Dean hollered as it soared. “Nice hit!”

“That was good?” Cas asked.

“Real good! And cool, too.”

“Thank you,” Cas blushed.

“Here it comes again!”

The ball returned and Cas did the same thing. They went back and forth like that for some time—Cas spring out of the water and Dean trying to catch the fly ball. They were both laughing a great deal and having a good time. Then Cas grabbed the ball with his hands too hard and his nails popped it.

“AAH!” Cas yelped as it burst. “Oh no!”

Dean laughed. “It’s okay, it’s okay!”

He ran down into the water and took the wilted plastic from Cas. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I didn’t realize…”

“I said don’t worry about it, that can happen.”

Looking sad, Cas lifted his hands up and stared at the sharp claws. “My fingers are much different than yours.”

“I know. It’s fine.”

Cas sighed. “Claws…I wish I didn’t have them.”

“But that’s something special about your people, right?”

“Just the males.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Cas said with a solemn nod. His tail moved slowly beneath the shallow water. “Females have smooth fingertips.”

Clearing his throat, Dean dropped his voice to a gravelly whisper and asked, “You wish you were female?”

“Something,” Cas admitted.

“Why’s that? You have any idea?”

“I don’t especially like the females,” the merman continued. “I prefer males. They’re much better company and, well, there is _you_.”

“But I’m not even your kind.”

“You are close. And I like you. I like you very, very much.”

Dean hummed a bit to himself and Castiel swam closer to him. He gazed up at the man with sad eyes. He was so pretty, it was a shame to see him feeling poor. Dean leaned down and gave Cas a hug.

“What is this?”

“A hug.”

“Hug?”

“When we put our arms around each other.”

“Ah…”

Cas carefully wrapped his arms around Dean’s waist, making sure not to claw at him or anything. Dean held him close and rubbed his hand down the vertical fin on his back. It folded itself down and he stroked it.

“I like this,” Cas sighed.

“Yeah, me, too.”


	8. Path of Crystals

 

The day went by, mostly consisting of making out. Nothing seemed better to either of them than lying on the beach, locked in an embrace with their lips together. Cas made small humming sounds, twitching his ear-fins and flapping his tail (also the larger, wing-like fins that jutted from his lower back) while Dean grunted, groaned and grabbed at Cas’ body. The human flesh was firm and smooth, but the fish tail was slimy, slick and delightful underneath his hands. Dean groped at what would be Cas’ rear end, but instead it was simply a rounded, firm muscle of tail. It was nice to touch anyway, and Cas didn’t protest.

What did grab his attention, though, was how Dean was wearing clothes. Somehow he managed to overlook it until they were kissing more.

“Dean?” Castiel asked.

“Yeah?”

Dean was on his back, holding Cas over him as they kissed. Cas’ sharp nails rested on Dean’s chest and toyed with his shirt softly.

“Why do you have this?”

“What, clothes?”

Cas shrugged.

“The stuff I have on my body is called clothes. I wear them. This is wearing clothes.”

“I see. Why?”

“All sorts of reasons,” Dean smiled as he explained. “They keep me warm when it’s cold, dry when it’s wet, clean when it’s dirty, but they’re also modest.”

“Modest?”

Dean narrowed his eyes. “Yeaaaah, I guess your kind doesn’t worry ‘bout that.”

“About what stuff?” Cas cocked his head, staring at Dean so intently with his ice blue eyes.

“Being modest. See, uh, well,” the man’s cheeks turned bright red. “Y’know how you’ve got that little space down there?” Cas nodded. “Well, I have something, too. But it’s different. It’s big and sensitive, and my people don’t walk around showing it off.”

“You have something?”

Cas slid off of Dean mostly and looked at his crotch. His clawed fingers slid down his chest and stopped at his pants.

“B-but don’t touch it!” Dean yelped. Cas brought his hands back immediately.

“I’m sorry!” he apologized, blushing hard. “I was curious. I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

“You didn’t, you didn’t, sorry. It’s just that my junk is _really_ sensitive and it made me nervous.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t apologize.” Dean smiled at Cas weakly. “Do you uh, do you wanna see it?”

“Yes.”

“O-okay, but just looking. And this is just ‘cause I asked about your parts, right?”

“I understand.”

Cheeks like great, shining tomatoes, Dean tugged down his pants and underwear to expose his cock to Cas. Unfortunately all of the kissing has given him a boner, which at this point was only a semi. Cas’ eyes widened and he looked at the penis with incredible curiosity.

“My!” he exclaimed, gazing upon the flesh. “It’s another appendage! And…and these round parts?”

“Balls.”

“Balls? Like what we played with?”

“Uh, _not_ quite.”

“Hmm…so much hair!”

“Haha, yeah, I guess so.”

“How interesting!”

“I guess. So, uh, you like it?”

“I do! It’s quite handsome to look at. I particularly enjoy all of this hair. It’s very _landperson_ , I think. I looks nice to touch.”

“Y-yeah, well don’t. Sorry.”

“I know. I understand.”

“Hah…right…”

“And your waste hole?” Cas asked. He started to move his head around, scanning Dean’s lower half. “Is it here?” He pointed at his urethra.

“Part of it,” said Dean. “I piss out there.”

“Piss?”

“The liquid waste.”

“Oh! But the solid doesn’t come here?”

“Nope. It’s, uh, well, it’s _here_.”

Dean spread his legs gingerly and pulled his cheeks apart. Cas looked closely at the puckerhole, eyes narrowed.

“This is where the solid waste comes out?”

“Yeah.”

“I like it.”

“You _do_?”

“It’s much more interesting looking than mine. Look at the wrinkles, and even more hair!”

“I _guess_.”

Dean chuckled a bit, but then it was time to get dressed. It felt a little too doctor-like to have Cas examining him in such a way. A besides, he didn’t like his asshole being looked at ever. So they moved on and went back to kissing.

They also shared more food, picked oranges and mined those glowing crystals from the cavern.

“They grow real fast, don’t they?” Dean asked as they swam back out into the light. The sun was on its way down and evening was casting shadows.

“Yes, but only because I use my powers.”

“Okay…so what exactly are they?”

“My powers?”

“Yeah.”

Dean got back up onto the shore and went to his fire pit, where he began setting up another one for the night. Cas set the crystal aside and joined Dean on his blankets.

“Healing, growing, some manipulations,” Cas explained.

“And that’s what you all do?”

  
“Yes.”

“Pretty cool.”

“Mmm.”

Cas hummed in agreement and leaned against Dean’s side. He closed his eyes and Dean ignited the fire and then set back, putting an arm around Cas.

“The heat doesn’t bother you?” Dean asked.

“Not if I stay far enough back. It’s fine. I enjoy it, actually.”

“Good.”

The sun crawled further towards the horizon and soon it was dark. Dean had become increasingly tired. He decided to get beneath the covers and lay down.

“I think I’ll head back tomorrow,” he said, suppressing a yawn.

“Already?” Cas asked. He grew sad at the thought.

“Yeah. It’s my brother. I gotta get back to him.”

“Ahh, family…yes, I believe I understand.”

“You’ve got family, right?”

“I don’t know my parents, but I have many siblings. Most of them have moved away, though.”

“Moved?” Dean asked, taken aback. “Moved _where?_ ”

“To another city.”

“There’re others?”

“Many.”

“Damn…”

“Do landpeople have cities?”

“Oh, yeah. Tons.”

“Interesting.”

Dean closed his eyes and began to nod off, which was Castiel’s cue to leave. They kissed once more, weakly since Dean was so tired, then the merman disappeared beneath the waves.

He darted down to the bottom of the ocean, holding his glowing crystals close with one hand. Most of the sea’s fish had settled for the night so he had an easy trip. As he soared along the bottom, just inches above the sand and silt, stacked rocks and other glowing crystals soon made a path. It wasn’t much longer until he was home.

The mer-city that Castiel belonged to was surrounded by those glowing crystals. Great buildings made from stone, driftwood and various sea plants scattered across the terrain. Many hundreds of merpeople were living there, some of which were active even into the night.

When Cas came though the entrance, which was a naturally formed archway of stone, he was immediately greeted by a handful of merpeople.

“Well, look who has decided to return,” said an older looking merman with a dark brown tail, blond hair and creased face. His arms were folded and a slight smirk was present. Behind him was a younger merman, a shimmering gold tail and long chestnut hair that floated around him. He grinned.

“Cassy!”

“Yes, I’m home,” Castiel said. He tried to push by them but was stopped by a mermaid with a pink tail and red hair.

“Castiel!” she said, hands to her lips. “Where have you been this whole time?”

“Gathering crystals, Anna,” Cas explained quickly, motioning towards the glowing rocks in his hands.

“For the entire sun?” the first merman asked.

“I was also eating. And hunting. Is it wrong to enjoy myself?”

“No, no, certainly not,” the dark-tailed merman said, arms still folded. “We were simply wondering. We’re very curious.”

“I understand,” said Cas. “Now if you please, I would like to go home.”

“Mmhmm.”

The onslaught of questions made Castiel very nervous. If he accidently let it slip that he was seeing a human, he would die in accordance to the “blessing.”

He swam through the streets until he stopped at the place he called home. It was a small room made from stacked rocks, with some sort of mud paste that held them together. The stability of it remained unclear except for the roof—long strands of kelp that had been woven together and wedged into the stone foundation. It covered his house well and let in greenish light when the sun was up.

His door was simply a soft sea-plant that grew in the entrance, giving some privacy. Once Cas swam through it and put his crystals down on a smooth, flat rock, he realized that someone was standing in the door.

“Gabe?” he asked, looking over his shoulder. The long-haired merman was hovering around the sea-plant, wiggling a bit with a curious face.

“Soooo where were you?” he asked, flicking his gold tail.

“Just as I said, I have been gathering.”

“For an entire sun?”

Cas sighed, some bubbles coming through his gills. “I am enjoying my life. I see no reason to question me further.”

“Oh,” Gabe said. He looked disappointed. “Okay…”

“But, um, as you are here…”

“Hm? What?”

Cas motioned for Gabe to come in more, which he did. His home was filled with all sorts of small items he had found, mostly sea glass. It was common for merpeople to find garbage from humans, but the popular belief was that _some_ sort of land creature produced it, not necessarily humans.

“I understand that you have never mated,” Cas began, making Gabe form an even stranger expression, “But is there any chance that you know how we do it?”

“Mate?”

“Yes, exactly.”

Castiel’s voice had become very low, as if embarrassed to ask.

“Why do you wanna know? Did you meet a ‘maid that finally does it for you?”

“No, no,” Cas rebutted. “I’m curious, that’s all. We know that mating is a part of life, but the actual process is alien to me.”

Gabe lowered himself to a bed of kelp planted there. He plucked at it gently and smirked. “So my brother wants to know about mating,” he said, chuckling.

“Indeed. Can you explain?”

“Of course I can.”

“Ahh…how did I know?” Cas blushed as he asked the questions. “But also, how _do_ you know?”

Snapping his sharp teeth, Gabe leered at Cas and said, “I’ve seen it happening.”

“Oh! How?!”

“Peeping.”

“Spying?”

“Something like that.”

“You’re naughty!” Cas gasped. “My own brother!”

“Stop, stop. You’re asking me to tell you, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then don’t harass me and let me explain.”

“I’m sorry.”

Castiel swam a little closer to Gabe and joined him on the patch of kelp. He sat on his tail and kept his claws together.

“Okay,” Gabe began, “It goes like this; the ‘maid starts by touching you right _down there_.” Gabe motioned to his genital slit. “She rubs it a lot then puts her fingers inside. As best as I can tell, there’s a hole once you get in.”

“A hole?”

“Yeah, that’s what it looked like to me!”

Cas glanced down at his own area and stared, tilting his head. “A hole,” he muttered, blushing. “I suppose that’s why females have smooth fingers?”

“Makes sense, right?”

“Indeed.”

“Anyway,” Gabe continued, flickering his tail some more, “She digs her fingers inside and rubs until this little _thing_ pokes out.”

“A thing? What sort of thing?”

“It’s like a thumb, kind of,” Gabe said, sticking the digit in question out. “It doesn’t have a claw, of course, but it’s this big. She rubs and rubs more, which also somehow opens _her_ area. Once your little thing is out and her area is open, (I think ‘maids must have holes too, but they’re way smaller and not as deep) you press them together and hold each other, rubbing and screaming a lot until the juice comes.”

“Juice?”

“Spawn fluids.”

“Ooh…”

“And that’s it.”

“I understand. How detailed.”

“Yeah, it’s weird, too. When I watched, they were biting a lot. And the noises they made were real strange, similar to pain but not quite.”

“Hmm…”

“So why?” Gabe asked. “What makes you so curious?”

“I occurred to me, that’s all.”

“Okay.”

Gabe looked around momentarily, and once the room grew awkwardly quiet he decided to go. “

“Let me know if you need any more naughty questions,” he said with a giggle.

“I will,” Cas answered plainly. Gabe passed through the sea-plants and left his brother alone.

A hole, huh?

Cas fixed his eyes onto his tail. He stared at the tiny waste hole, the small scales that surrounded it, then finally the slit. Why would a mermaid think to put her hand in there? It must feel good, incredibly good. He lightly touched himself but his claws were too sharp and it hurt. Obviously, smooth fingers were necessary.

With a defeated sigh, Castiel went to his bed; a second bed of live kelp that had pieces of wood and other dead plants stuck into it, creating a rounded nest. He swam in a small circle then curled up and settled in. Closing his eyes, he thought about Dean’s smooth fingers.

 


	9. Rite

Dean was sleeping peacefully on his back. The fire was still burning well, sending tiny bits of ash high into the night sky. Most of Dean’s covers had been kicked off and his arms were open to the side. Soft waves came rushing in; one after the other but enough distance was between them and Dean that it didn’t matter. But then Cas crawled back up onto the beach, slithering to Dean’s blankets and plopped down beside him. His conversation with Gabe had made him as curious as ever, and after seeing Dean’s cock, he _really_ wanted to experiment.

“Dean…”

The man remained asleep.

“ _Dean_ …”

Cas took his palm and placed it over Dean’s crotch.

“Oooh…” Dean grunted in his sleep, immediately as Cas touching him. His cock firmed up nice and hard and his hips bucked. “Fuck it…”

“Dean?”

“…mmmm…fuck me…”

“ _Dean?_ ”

Then he woke up. It was a startled motion and he sprang to his elbows, eyes fixed on Cas. Then he saw the hand on his crotch.

“WAAAAH!! DON’T TOUCH IT!!”

“Ah!”

Cas jumped as well and pulled his hand back. Both of them were blushing, but Dean was more upset by far. “Wh-what were you doing?!”

“I wanted to touch you, I’m sorry!”

“Oh my God,” Dean gasped, catching his breath. The fire crackled beside him. “You could’ve hurt me down there with those claws.”

“I was being gentle.”

“Y-yeah, but still.”

“You seemed to enjoy it.”

“I-I guess.”

The intensity dropped off and Dean settled. He lay down on his back again, and instead of being cold to Cas, he touched his arm.

“I figured you would be home all night,” he said, relaxed now.

“I slept for a while, but some thoughts were keeping me awake.”

“Thoughts? Like what?” Dean asked, smirking thinly. Cas blushed more.

“I inquired about our mating habits.”

“Oh yeah?” Apparently, that boner wasn’t going anywhere. “What didja learn?”

“Many things,” Cas began. He was on his back now, too, leaning into Dean with a soft smile. “I learned that the seamaid rubs the seaman’s slit, rubs it and rubs it until her fingers go inside.”

“R-really?” Dean’s eyes widened at the thought. He looked down at Cas’ slit and licked his lips. “Then what?”

“Then she keeps rubbing until a small _thing_ pops out of the seaman.”

“A thing?”

“Yes, like a thumb, I was told.”

“Like my _appendage_ down there?”

“Possibly.”

A big, tense gulp and Dean asked, “Then what?”

“Then she rubs her slit against the thing, screaming and biting until the spawn fluid is passed.”

“Sounds hot.”

“That is how we mate. I’m not sure about the temperature.”

Dean chuckled. “I didn’t…ah, never mind. I’m curious about how you pick mates, though.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, like, do you uh…do you think we would mate, if I was a seaperson?”

Cas made a tiny squeaking noise. His tailfins curled.

“Well?” Dean asked, biting his lip and staring at Cas, whose eyes were fixed elsewhere.

“ _Perhaps_ ,” the merman whispered.

“Would you wanna do it anyway?”

“ _Perhaps_.”

“What if I…”

Dean slowly brought his hand over to Cas’ tail and laid it flat over the slit. Cas closed his eyes. Dean began to rub in firm circles, feeling the lips of the slit begin to loosen. He leaned over Cas and kissed him, which the merman took to immediately. His arms slipped around Dean’s body and pulled him closer, moving his tail in curious flexing motions.

As the slip started to open up, Dean slipped one finger inside. It was very wet and surprisingly warm. Up until then he assumed the tail would be cold, especially since Cas’ mouth was mostly cool (save for his tongue, which would be a little warm), but the muscles inside were nice and toasty. It felt like the inside of a cheek only smoother, more velvety but with some wrinkles in it. He stroked his finger along the entire length, starting near his waste hole, across some folds of flesh and up towards the top, where a smooth mound was present. The moment that Dean touched the mound, Cas convulsed wildly.

“GAAAH!” he yelped, pulling out of the kiss and gasping.

“Is it good?” Dean asked. The hole grew wetter.

“K-keep touching!” Cas moaned, sounding more like he was being tortured than pleasured.

Dean listened regardless of how it sounded. His finger teased over the mound, about the size of a thumb and feeling like a very large clitoris without a hood. He pushed a firm line from the tip of the mound back down, heading towards the base. But instead of running back to the waste hole, Cas’ slit had grown deeper and Dean was able to push those fingers inside more. The folded skin was expanding. It was making a penetrable hole, going into Cas’ body and down the “stem” of the mound. Dean eased two more fingers inside, but he wanted to get a better look.

“I’m gonna move down here,” he said, straddling Cas’ tail and sliding down so that he face was in level with the slit. Cas said nothing, eyes closed, claws digging into the blankets as yelps of pleasure snuck out of his mouth from time to time.

Momentarily did Dean take his fingers out of the hole. He held each side of the slit and opened it up so that he could see inside it. In fact, the resemblance to a human vagina was a little strange—the slit was oval when spread open, and the mound sat like a large clitoris within the lips. The hole he had made with his fingers, as far as Dean could tell, was stretching itself to conform with the dimensions of the object inserted.

Upon further inspection, the small mound had a tiny urethra on top. Obviously it was his penis. A little, blue penis. In fact the entire inside was blue, not deep like his tail but a light, frost blue. It was difficult to see it exactly using only firelight to observe, but it maybe was a swirled color of blue and white. Either way, it was beautiful. Unusual, not particularly male by nature, but it was gorgeous.

Dean teased at it gently, tickling the mound with his fingers when suddenly it leaked out a trail of thin liquid.

“What was that?” Dean asked, eyes wide.

“I-I don’t know,” was all Cas could answer. He was experiencing so many new and incredible sensations that he struggled to say much.

“You piss out your waste hole, not this, right?”

“Y-yes.”

“Hm…”

Dean used the pad of his thumb to stroke the mound hard, rubbing down into the hole. It seemed there was a long and sensitive nerve that ran from the mound and along the “top” of the hole, going deeper into his body. When he stroked it, the small penis leaked more fluid and Cas gasped.

“Aah!! It f-feels so incredible!”

Dean rubbed a little longer until he got a better idea.

“Can I lick you?” he asked.

“Lick?” Cas gasped, trying to sneak a peek down at Dean.

“Yeah, like, put my tongue on this area.”

“I-I suppose so…”

Dean wet his lips then bowed his head down, sticking his tongue out. He gently touched the tip to Cas’ small penis and wiggled it gently, expecting a strong reaction. Cas arched his back, howling some, and more fluid oozed. Dean gingerly tasted it with a smile.

“It’s good,” he said.

“Wh-what is?”

“Your juice.”

Closing his eyes, Dean began to run his tongue over Cas’ mound in great, slow slurps. The merman shivered and wiggled, flapping his tail as well as his other fins, muttering phrases such as, “The feeling is incredible” and “P-please don’t stop this, Dean.”

Keeping the slit open wide with his fingers, Dean dipped his tongue deep inside. He wriggled it about, teasing Cas so much that the muscles were in a state of continuous spasm. The liquid continued to ooze, and Dean found himself almost intoxicated by it. The taste was sweet and slightly salty, with a perfumed tinge that he couldn’t quite discern. Either way, it had a strong smell that made him want Cas even more. As he licked and swallowed bead after bead of juice, he ate the hole with greater gusto and louder grunts.

“Deaaaaan,” Cas moaned, blushing furiously as his head turned from side to side. “This feeeeeeling!”

“So good,” was all Dean could say, lips soaked in Castiel’s fluids and his own saliva. He pushed fingers back inside and stretched the hole open again, wondering how deep it would go. The small penis was poking out of the slit about an inch now, sparkling in its own juices, shining like a beacon in the moonlight. Dean put his lips around it and sucked hard.

“Aaaaah, Deaaaaan!”

With a great inhale of Cas’ leaking hormones, Dean finally looked up at him and growled, “I’m going to fuck you.”

“Going to wh-what?”

Cas’ eyes sparked in the firelight, his hair a greater mess than usual and cheeks burning bright. As his chest heaved from his constant gasps, Dean sat up and quickly undressed.

“Ooh!” Cas shouted, eyes falling upon Dean’s naked body. His cock was fully erect, a thick eight inches with a full head. He grasped the base and jerked himself gently, staring at Cas with glassy eyes.

“You wanna get real dirty?” he purred.

“Dirty with what?” Cas asked, his small dick poking forth from the sticky lips.

“My sweat and my cum.”

“I don’t understand…”

“It’s part of mating.”

Cas pressed his little sharp teeth into his bottom lip and flapped his tail. A thin stream of juice dribbled from his dick. “Mate with me,” he moaned breathily.

“I’m gonna,” Dean replied. He smirked.

Straddling Cas better so that one hand went by the merman’s shoulder, pushing into the blankets for support, Dean lined his cock up with the juicy slit. He touched the tip of his head to the lips and gently slid inside.

It was as if Cas’ body had been expecting Dean for a long time; the muscle expanded and gave way to the perfect tunnel for Dean’s cock. He eased inside slowly, feeling the velvety-smooth lining of the manpussy quiver and contract around him.

“Ooh God,” Dean grunted. He had to stand on his knees with his ass in the air to keep his balls from being squashed against Cas’ tail. It wasn’t his ideal position for love making, but Cas’ hole was so delicious feeling on his throbbing cock that he didn’t bother to think about his knees.

“Dean---haa!!---Deaan!” Cas inhaled sharply, writhing beneath the man like a snake.

“I-is it good?” Dean asked. It was difficult for him to form words since he was so overwhelmed by the sensation. Putting his cock inside Cas felt like fucking a pussy that also sucked him. The muscles were so tight and taught that they actually tugged at Dean’s flesh, trying to suck it deeper. His body flushed with incredible feelings, every nerve tingling with deep, erotic satisfaction.

“Aaah…Deaaaan…so good…”

“Fuck my dick.”

Cas’ little cock had extended a little further now, nearly two inches out of the slit. Every time Dean thrust inside, the small cock actually shot a stream of liquid out. Cas yelped and squealed when this happened.

“Look at me,” Dean growled. He grabbed Cas’ face with both his hands and stared at him, fucking into the hole hard. Cas’ eyes were wide and shiny.

“We’re mating,” Cas whispered.

“Sure are.”

“It feels so good.”

“It feels _so_ good.”

Dean suddenly burrowed his face into the crook of Cas’ neck and bit down on him. Cas’ nerves rippled with pleasure and his grabbed Dean’s back. His nails dug into the man’s flesh, breaking the skin immediately.

“Oh, God!” Dean shouted. His balls slapped against the blue scales hard as he ground his cock furiously. “Cumming!”

“What?!” Cas yelled.

Dean delivered a final thrust inside Cas and suddenly he filled with cum. The hole was so tight that his jizz immediately squeezed out from around his cock.

“Oh my _Gooooood_ ,” Dean moaned, trying to catch his breath.

Cas quivered, twitching and yelping still, nails scratching along the thin marks along Dean’s back. His small cock throbbing hard and let a continuous trail of liquid dribble out, not unlike pissing himself.

“D-don’t stop,” Cas pleaded. “Dean, k-keep going.”

“Ahh…haah…I can’t…wait…hold on…”

“No, no! Dean! Please!”

Now Cas began violently desperate. He was shaking like an addict needing a fix. His hole squeezed tight and his cock kept leaking. “Dean! Please!”

“Baby, I came. I gotta recover.”

“No, no, no! Aaah!”

“Hold on, hold on.”

Acting quickly, Dean pulled his cock out and slid back down to the slit. He licked over the small dick and Cas settled somewhat.

“Ooooh,” he cooed, relaxing once more. “Oh, Dean…Deaaan…”

Dean suckled on the dick, slurping down the sweet juice happily. Then he dipped a finger into the hole, catching some of his cum, and brought it up to Cas’ lips.

“Taste me,” he said, offering the finger to Cas, who immediately stuck out his thin tongue and licked it off.

“OH!”

Cas looked incredible surprised. He grabbed Dean’s wrist and kept licking hungrily.

“You like it?” Dean asked, giggling slightly from Cas’ snakelike tongue whipping over him.

“I need this!” Cas moaned. His eyes narrowed but still sparkled with lust.

“I got more, here, look here.”

With Cas temporarily distracted, Dean moved his hips up towards the merman’s face. He took his flaccid, cum-soaked dick in his hand and held it out towards Cas. “Here.”

Like a person who hasn’t eaten in days, Cas immediately took to the cock, licking and eating off the cum with great passion. His eyes closed and he let small moans out as he furiously cleaned the dick up. Dean watched with wide eyes. That tongue was incredible. Fully extended it must have been almost four inches long, all of which wrapped around his cock and skillfully brought the cum into his mouth.

“It tastes like you,” Cas managed to mutter between licks. Dean couldn’t speak, he just sat there and wiggled from pleasure, his cock growing hard again. “Mmm…”

Once the dick was dry, Cas moved his head down and startled licking the balls hungrily. Dean’s pubic hair didn’t seem to bother him, since his tongue kept flicking all over it.

“H-hey,” Dean hummed. He leaned back and gave Cas better access to his balls, then grabbed up his own dick and jerked gently.

It was interesting to see Cas behaving in such a raw, animalistic way. He licked over his balls, up the shaft again and all around the pubic area. His thin tongue wiggled in the lines between crotch and hip, tickling Dean so much, then he went lower and licked his taint.

“H-hey!” Dean yelped. He kept jerking off, watching Cas’ face disappear. “D-don’t!”

But it was too late. Cas flicked his tongue over Dean’s puckerhole and, finding it pleasant, immediately slipped inside.

“Wait, Cas, stop! Don’t--- _ooooh_ …”

With a loud sigh, Dean’s body went like butter. Nothing or no one had ever touched him there before, and up until then he considered it a good thing. But now, with the thin, wet tongue wiggling wildly like a worm deep inside his ass, he couldn’t do anything but lean back and jerk his cock gently.

“Ooh, Caaaaas…”

The merman worked his tongue hungrily, scoping the hole with great intent. He touched all the right places and Dean starting dribbling precum.

“Holy _shiiit_ …”

The hand which didn’t work his cock now reached down and grabbed the back of Cas’ head. He worked his fingers through the salty hair and pushed it into his grinding hips.

“Eat my ass,” he growled. “That’s good, that’s good…aah…”

Though the delirium of rimming was making Dean dizzy, he was indeed hard again and he hadn’t forgotten how Cas needed to be fucked.

“Okay, babe, Cas, stop.”

“Hmm?”

The tongue retracted as quickly as a measuring tape and Cas looked up at Dean. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

“N-no,” Dean stuttered, looking at the spit trickling down Cas’ beautiful face. He straddled him properly again and rubbed his cock along the stick slit. “I just want to do this again. You do too, don’t’cha?”

“Yes,” Cas agreed, smiling.

“Here. Go like this.”

Dean grabbed Cas tight and threw himself over onto his back. Cas toppled and rolled with him. The blanket singed at the fresh claw marks on his back as first, but as the merman rubbed his slit over his dick, he quickly forgot.

“Now lower down on my cock and ride it.”

“Ride it?”

“Yeah, just try, you’ll figure it out.”

Dean was able to spread his legs and let Cas’ tail hang between. The merman put his hands flat on the blanket beneath Dean’s waist and hoisted himself over the erection. His slit hungrily slurped the cock up and Cas yelped. His eyes opened wide and cheeks flushed red again, ear-fins fluttering erratically.

“Good?” Dean asked, grinning big. He put his hands on Cas’ waist and helped him get a grinding motion.

He hadn’t realized just how strong Cas was until now—the tail was a great, fierce muscle that began to hump and hump at his cock. Cas arched his back, eyes pointed up at the stars as he was overtaken by his instinct. This put him back in a male-like position which allowed him to let go.

“Aaah! Aaaah!” Cas shouted, humping the man’s cock furiously. “Yeeeess! Deaaan! Aaaah!”

“So good, baby, so good!”

Dean brought one hand down to Cas’ little dick and thumbed over it. Juice still flowed, soaking Dean’s pelvic area delightfully. Every couple seconds he had to bring his thumb to his lips and taste the liquid. It was a drug, he thought, that was so pumped full of Castiel’s hormones he got dizzy and horny for him.

“Aaah! Yesss!”

Cas’ shouts continued, so loud that if anyone had been near they would certainly hear him. The gravelly voice was peaking, cracking, screaming as his orgasm was ultimately approached. His tail slammed against the sand continuously, beating it as his muscles clenched around Dean’s cock.

“Cum, baby,” Dean cooed. He rocked back a big and tossed his legs around the tail, squeezing him with his thighs. He realized it probably looked silly, but he really couldn’t care about that right now.

He pinched Cas’ small cock between his thumb and index finger, jerking it as best as he could while the merman kept humping and humping. _So_ much humping. Castiel was in a great frenzy, drool running down his chin, back still arched and his hands grabbing tight fists of blanket.

“OH! AAH!! OOOOOH!”

Suddenly, the urethra on Cas’ tiny cock opened wide and an even smaller bit, something about the thickness of a straw and only a few centimeters long, poked out. It was bright pink. Dean thumbed over it and Cas stopped humped.

“AAAAAH!” he screamed, every muscle in his great body tightening up. The wide, wing-like fins at his waist fanned out and fluttered. Then the pink tip spewed forth a thick, creamy liquid. It was foamy and heavy, smelling strongly like fish and Dean thought he wouldn’t try tasting that one.

“Ohh! Oooh!”

Rope after rope of this substance oozed, piling up within Dean’s pubic hair. Cas’ body relaxed as the cream ceased, the pink tip retracted but a lot of clear liquid ran out afterwards. It really looked like he had pissed himself but Dean thought it was sexy. There was a great big merman mess on him but he wouldn’t want it any other way.

“That was it, huh?” Dean asked with a grin.

“What?”

“Your spawn fluid.”

Coming to his sensing, Cas slipped Dean’s still firm cock out and rolled off.

“I suppose it is.”

“I still have some of mine I gotta get rid of,” Dean grunted, taking his dick in his hand again. “You want it?”

Smiling happily, Cas nodded and brought his face down to Dean’s cock. He jerked furiously.

“Open up and stick your tongue out…good…now lick the tip…holy _shit!_ ”

The tiny wet tongue tickled his dickhead so good that he came the moment it touched. A couple thin ropes of pearly cum sprayed inside Cas’ mouth, which welcomed it warmly and was swallowed right away. Cas licked his lips.

“You’re very delicious,” he said.

“You, too.”

“Mmm…”

Cas took a deep breath then lay down alongside Dean. They faced each other and laid on their sides.

“We’ve mated,” Cas said, as if announcing something Dean didn’t realize.

“It was great.”

“It was,” Cas agreed. They kissed. Dean smiled.

“I like tasting myself on you,” he said.

“I agree.”

They kissed again. Though Cas had to get back into the water quickly, they managed to enjoy their afterglow as the fire burned out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this was the longest sex scene I've ever written. I hope it all made sense, since it was pretty complicated. And messy. Oof.


	10. Great Upset

_It was a good dream._

_Unusual and a little gross, but it was a good dream._

That’s what Dean was thinking as he woke up. The fire was long out but the air still smelled of charred wood and the sun was already rising. He stretched, cracked his back and turned over. A smile was on his face, thinking that Cas had a beautiful fishpussy in his dream, and how good it felt around his cock. But then he realized he was naked. Cum was dried on his belly and in his pubic hair.

“Wait a minute…”

Dean had to sit up suddenly. His eyes were wide as they stared at the ocean, nothing but shocked thoughts running through his head.

“Did I actually…”

The waves splashed up and suddenly Castiel was climbing onto the shore. He was grinning ear to ear (or fin to fin, rather) and wiggling his tail with great excitement. Though Dean had slept well, Cas was up all night. The ecstasy from making love with Dean had him soaring through the ocean, singing loudly of his joy and breaching wildly. His high was coming down now and just the smile remained.

“Hello, Dean.”

“Cas!” Dean gasped. He instinctively covered his nakedness as Cas approached.

“Did you sleep well?” the merman asked, propping himself up on his hands and staring at Dean, still beaming with joy.

“Y-yeah, I did…umm…Cas?”

“Yes?”

“Did we uh…did we _do things_ last night?”

“Things? Are you referring to the mating?”

Dean felt his face heat up. “Yeah,” he said softly.

“Of course we did. Do you forget?”

“I thought it was a dream at first, to be honest.”

Cas’ smile faded. “Oh…”

“No, don’t be sad!”

“Are you unhappy that we mated?”

“No, no! Not at all!”

Scrambling to cheer him up, Dean lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Cas’ shoulders. He pulled him close and the merman melted into his embrace like butter. His eyes closed and this ear-fins fluttered.

“It just surprises me, that’s all. We uh, we did some pretty messed up stuff.”

“Messed up?”

“The whole thing was pretty kinky.”

“Kinky? I don’t understand…did we mate unusually?”

“Little bit.”

“Is that bad?”

“Nah, not really. I’ve done weirder.”

Cas’ body froze. He backed out of Dean’s arms and stared at him with a flat expression. “Weirder…mating?”

“Yeah,” Dean said, wondering if he had used the wrong word. Cas’ translucent third eyelids blinked slowly beneath the outer ones. It looked strange.

“You’ve…”

The merman’s lower lip twitched. His eyes gazed downward.

“You’ve mated before?”

“Sure.”

Suddenly, all of Castiel’s fins opened up in a violent burst and he turned around, back towards the sea, smacking his tail into the ground so that sand flew up all over Dean.

“HEY!” the man shouted. He got up and let the blanket drop, chasing after Cas, who was quickly retreating to the water. “CAS!”

He zoomed into the ocean, splashing greatly, then poked his head out and glared at Dean.

“How could you!” he yelled.

“I didn’t do it recently!” Dean retorted, standing like an idiot with water to his knees, completely naked.

“But you have had a mate before me!!”

“That’s what people—what my people do! It’s normal!”

Cas barred his teeth and made a hissing sound, which made Dean stand his ground and realize how dangerous the creature could be if provoked. Cas could easily shred him into ribbons.

“I don’t want to see you anymore, Dean!” Cas yelled.

“Hey! Isn’t that kind of harsh?”

Dean yelled but it was too late—Cas had already plunged back into the water. He cursed to himself and went to find his clothes. How could they go from perfect harmony to complete and utter disaster? Dean got dressed then sat down on the blanket again. It seemed terribly unfair. He put his hand over his eyes and wept.

* * *

“I don’t care!” Castiel was still shouting to himself as he swam quickly. He dodged all sorts of marine life, talking loudly and making a terrifying face of rage. Several times he didn’t move fast enough and slammed into rock formations. He took a few hard beatings from the stationary objects and was getting scraped up all over.

“Castiel?”

As he approached his underwater city, the gold-tailed Gabe was flitting around outside. He had a fish in his hands but when he saw his brother acting so crazily, he let it go.

“I don’t wish to speak right now,” Cas said sternly, slowing down only slightly. There was a knick in his tail that was letting blood out.

“Stop that,” Gabe advised, pointing to the wound, “Or there’s gonna be sharks.”

“I don’t much care.”

“What?!”

“Perhaps a shark would be welcome,” Cas said, folding his arms and looking bitter.

“Are you crazy? What are you talking about?”

“I have lost the will to live.”

“How?! How could anything do that to you?!” Gabe stared at his brother with great sadness. Castiel closed his eyes.

“I have found a mate,” he said.

“I KNEW it!” Gabe shouted. A smirk appeared but quickly failed him. “Wait, if you found a mate, shouldn’t you be happy about it?”

“I should, but the mate has deceived you.”

“How?”

“They have had other mates before me.”

“Ugh! What! Where did you find this ‘maid?”

“He is no maid.”

“What!”

Cas put his hands over his face. His fins retracted and he floated towards the ground. With a deep breath, he peered at Gabe and said, “He is a landperson.”

“NO DON’T SAY IT!” Gabe shouted. He flung his arms around Cas and pulled him close. “ARE YOU INSANE?!”

Grabbing at Castiel in utter desperation, Gabe clawed at his shoulders and yelped in sorrow. But then they realized that nothing was happening.

“Wait…”

Castiel looked at his brother, lower lip trembling. Gabe let his hands drop and he stared back. “You’re still alive,” he muttered.

“It should have happened, correct?” Cas asked.

“Thought so.”

There was a pause filled with awkwardness, then Gabe continued in a sharp voice, “Maybe you should go see the Elder.”

“Oh!” Cas inhaled. “Me? Do you think he would speak to me?”

“Hey, you mated with a landperson, talked about it and lived. I think that qualifies.”

Feeling despair sinking in again, Cas nodded solemnly and swam into the city. That sudden urge to die had lifted but he was still hurting from Dean.

The Elder lived at a cave near the far end of the city. He was the oldest and wisest of them all, but very temperamental and picky about his guests. The two second oldest elders lived alongside him and reviewed any visitors.

Castiel had never spoken to the Elder, but he knew the proper etiquette if you wanted to butter him up, so he foraged for the best sea-herbs and fish he could quickly find, then went off towards the cave.

“I have an issue to discuss with the Elder,” Cas told the two in command.

“Hm,” said one of them, a messy looking female. She looked at the food offerings and nodded. “I will ask.”

Presently she swam away and left Cas with the other one; a man with a long face, long hair and a graying tail. He said nothing but watched Cas with narrow eyes. It felt like he could read the pain in his heart.

“The Elder will see you,” said the woman as she reappeared at the mouth of the cave. Castiel would have smiled, but the urgency and shock of the events leading up to now continued to drum in his head.

Cas followed the female into the cave, which was lit by the same glowing crystals he harvested back on the orange island. He glanced at them and thought about Dean’s betrayal as they moved on. Then, where strange, fluorescent greens were growing up into a curtain, the female elder silently pointed and backed away. Castiel went through the plants and saw the oldest merperson he had ever laid eyes on.

He had thin dark hair and sunken cheeks. His eyes were small black dots that darted around oddly between a beaky nose. What had likely once been a white tail was now a sad grey, accompanied by tattered fins. He saw Castiel and made a small smile.

“Hello,” said Cas. He presented the food and placed them on a small rock in front of the Elder. “These are for you.”

“Thank you,” the Elder said. He glanced at the food and picked up one of the plants, examined it for a moment then put it into his mouth. “Good. Now what brings you to see me?”

“Well, I have a very…particular problem.”

“Sit. Go on.”

Castiel nervously settled down on the floor. He curled his tail around to his front and lightly touched his fins.

“I have…I have befriended a landperson and we have mated.”

“Ah,” the Elder said, as if not surprised in any way. His small eyes peered at Castiel and he continued eating the plant offerings. “And you are here because the confession has not killed you, I presume?”

“Indeed.”

The Elder took a slow, deep breath then let it bubble out with generous time, all the while Castiel sat there, watching him nervously. What great truths were about to be learned?

“I knew that this day would come,” the Elder said at last. “The Elder before me did, and so did the one before her. It was inevitable that this would happen at some point.”

“What happened?”

“I will tell you everything you must know regarding the situation. Listen carefully but do not tell the others.”

“I understand,” Cas said with a nod.

“It was many, many Elders ago,” the old merman continued, “When our people discovered those who dwelt upon the land. They freely interacted, and at first it was pleasant; we shared knowledge and skills. But it did not take long until the seapeople mated with the landpeople.

“The act alone was not the issue, no; they were all quite happy and in most circumstances, it is good for people to be happy. Unfortunately, the landpeople preferred picking mates with our people, and our people preferred picking makes with their people. Since they cannot reproduce, it posed a threat to both kinds. So the four Elders at the time decided to combine their powers to make a Definitive Spell.”

“Definitive Spell?” Castiel asked, eyebrows raised eye.

“Indeed,” the Elder agreed. “You must know that our magic can bleed out, yes?”

“Well, yes, but it can be replenished.”

“That is true. However, if it is used with a strong intent, the magic will create a Definitive Spell and never come back.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Few do, few do. Definitive Spells are dangerous, since once they are used, you shall never practice your powers ever again. However, the power of the spell will go forever.”

“So the Elders used a Definitive Spell to make us die if we spoke of landpeople?” Cas asked.

“Precisely,” the Elder agreed. He took a fish and ate it casually. “It ceased all interaction immediately. But we always knew that there would be a curious person such as yourself who would have to investigate the landpeople regardless.”

“But…”

Castiel was about to ask the obvious when the Elder interrupted him.

“It was broken because this landman truly loves you, I would assume.”

“What do you mean?” Cas asked, looking up at the Elder. His mouth opened a bit in surprise. “He has been mated before me, how could he love me?”

“I can’t it much better than you can, I’m afraid. The only possibility of breaking a Definitive Spell is for a stronger magic to intervene.”

“Love?”

“I would think so.”

“Then…”

Castiel’s eyes opened wide. He got up from the floor and hovered in the middle of the cave, feeling strong emotions rush through every nerve in his body. He had been wrong all along!

“Then I should keep him as my mate!”

“Perhaps it would be wise,” said the Elder. “However, I’m not sure if the others will agree.”

“What do you mean?”

The Elder sighed and shook his head. He looked sad. “I’m sorry to say that my power goes as far as knowledge and insight. I cannot provide any law that can sway their opinions.”

“What do you mean, Elder?”

“I’m afraid I will have to dismiss you now.”

“What?!”

“Good luck.”

Heart racing, Castiel zoomed out of the Elder’s cave like a bullet. What was he trying to suggest?

When he left, the first thing that greeted him at the mouth of the cave was a large group of merpeople. They did not appear to be happy.

“Um, hello,” Castiel said very softly.

“Traitor!” one of them shouted.

“Perverted!” screamed another.

The group shifted towards Cas and he swam upwards immediately. “Stop that!” he yelled back at them. Clearly, knowledge of his love affair with Dean had spread faster than an oil spill.

“You’re a very naughty person!” shouted the merman with the dark-brown tail. He swam after Cas and grabbed him, digging his claws into his tail.

“AAH! Stop! I’ve done nothing wrong!”

“You’re a traitor!” the red haired mermaid squealed. “You’ve mated with a landperson!”

Suddenly, they swarmed and grabbed every inch of him. Castiel cried out with a struggle, but there was nothing he could do. Claws ripped into him and teeth gnashed. They were so angry; so blindly, foolishly angry.

“There will be little healing for some time,” one merman said as he dug his claw into Castiel’s neck. Something cool and smooth flowed out, no doubt a bit of his magic.

“It’s a land _man_ he has mated with!” A mermaid screamed loudly. The crowd hooted in rage.

“If you want to be a ‘maid,” a blond merman said, popping into Castiel’s blurred vision, “Then we can have that arranged.”

They grabbed his hands and roughly ground the claws on rocks with sharp edges, chipping away the talon and getting to his skin. He pained and bled profusely, screaming and crying for mercy but they wouldn’t let up. They used sharp edges of sea glass to rip into the webbing between his fingers; a pain he thought impossible to bear.

Once he was declawed, dewebbed, battered and bloodied, the carried him out of the city and left him in the middle of the ocean.

“Shark bait,” one of them said as they swam away.

Castiel felt himself floating around aimlessly. He could barely move. Enough magic had been spilt that he would need several days of recovery before he could heal himself. With such blood coming from him, he would be an easy target for a shark. Despite his pain and tiredness, Cas _had_ to keep moving.


	11. Rough Tides

“I’m not even worried anymore. Now I’m just angry.”

Back in Gunspier, Sam had been on edge since Dean left. They had made good money from his last haul, but it was time for another. Something told him that the next wouldn’t be as big, and that was bad. He needed _Mary’s Bounty_ to return.

“Give him time,” said Bobby. He had been visiting regularly to keep Sam in check. “I think he’ll come ‘round sooner or later.”

“Well yeah, of course he’ll come back,” Sam huffed. “I just need to know _when_. It has to be soon. We’re starting to hurt for money and I’m relying on whatever load he hauls in.” Bobby said nothing. “What do you think he’s doing out there?”

“Can’t ya tell?”

“It’s weird. I’d like to think that if he’s found a special place to catch fish, he would tell me and we could go together.”

Bobby chuckled, arms folded and slumped back in his chair (they were sitting in the dining room).

“What?” Sam asked.

“Don’cha see, boy?”

“See what?”

“He’s in love.”

“ _Love_? You mean he’s seeing a _woman?_ ”

“Could be.”

“That’s stupid. There’s no way Dean would act like that all because of a woman.”

As if on cue, Sam’s brother came stumbling in through the front door. Sam got up immediately and rushed to his side. Dean was exhausted, worn out and horrible looking. Dark bags under his eyes said he hadn’t slept very well.

“What happened to you?!” Sam gasped.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Dean grunted as he pushed by Sam and dragged himself to his room.

“HEY! Dean! Any kind of explanation?!”

Dean ignored him and collapsed on his bed. He didn’t even notice Bobby, who was still sitting in the dining room. Sam went to follow Dean but Bobby stopped him. “Give ‘im a moment,” he warned.

“Why?”

“Jus’ do.”

“Fine.”

Lips pressed thin, Sam took his seat again and looked at Bobby. “He’s an idiot.”

“Never said he wasn’t.”

Dean made no noise. The house fell oddly quiet and Bobby suggested that Sam brew some coffee, which he did. When it was done, he called for Dean to join them.

“ _Why?!_ ” Dean shouted, sounding like most of his face was stuck in a pillow.

“Come see yer damned brother!” Bobby yelled.

Disgruntled mumbles along the lines of “alright alright” closely followed Dean’s appearance. At least he had bothered to put clean clothes on.

“Dean?” Sam asked, offering a cup of hot coffee. It was a welcome sight.

“Sorry,” Dean said as soon as he took the cup and a seat. He sat loudly and sipped the coffee even louder. Bobby wrinkled his nose.

“Where have you been and what on Earth happened to you?” Sam asked, doing his very best to not sound condescending (he wasn’t doing a good job of that).

“Stuff,” Dean answered gruffly. “Just _stuff_. But it didn’t work out like I wanted it to.” His eyes darted to Bobby quickly. “Not at all.”

“Did you bring back a load?”

Dean shook his head. Sam slammed his hand on the table, something he basically never did.

“Damn it, Dean!” Sam yelled, his voice cracking. “You said you would bring back something! We’re running out of money!”

“Don’t _yell_ ,” Dean groaned. “I’ll…I’ll figure something else.”

“I hope so! This is serious!”

Here, Bobby finished his coffee and stood up. He quietly said he was going to leave, but added “I wanna talk to Dean alone first” and motioned for the older brother to follow. They through the front door and stood above the steps down.

“Tomatoes?” Bobby asked, speaking in a hushed voice. Dean looked down and sighed.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Trouble in paradise?”

“It’s complicated, Bobby. I don’t even know what to say. My tomato could be anywhere, now.”

“I’m sorry ta’ hear it, boy, but yer forgettin’ about yer brother now.”

“I’m not! I said I’d figure something out.”

Bobby shook his head. “I sure do hope so. Just remember—no tomato is worth losin’ yer brother.”

“I know, I know.”

“Now I’m not sure you do, Dean.”

“I do!”

“Ya’ve been pushin’ and pushin’ the boy’s limits. He won’t take it much longer, I tell you what.”

“I know, Bobby. Don’t worry about it.”

Bobby let out a long, slow sigh and began to go down the stairs. He said nothing more to Dean as he disappeared beneath the house.

* * *

The boys were back on _Mary’s Bounty_ the next day. They searched the seas for schools of fish, though secretly Dean was hoping he’d see Cas. He wanted a sign, a clue, _anything_ to know that Cas was still out there and willing to look beyond his multiple partners.

Sam was acting a bit happier, enough to get along with Dean, but unfortunately the good mood was short lived. When the next full moon came around, Dean got the brilliant idea of heading out to the orange island once more, just in case the merman was waiting for him. This brought Sam’s anger back.

“Are you serious?!”

“Yeah.”

“Dean!!”

“I’ll probably be back in the evening.”

“DEAN!!”

A bag of supplies slung over his shoulder, Dean left the house without even a goodbye. Two weeks of wondering about Cas had left him rather bitter.

He sailed out on _Mary’s Bounty_ successfully and without any wrong directions this time. His heart was heavy and his head pounded, but it all felt worse when he got to the island and saw nobody there. He was hopeful but in all seriousness, he didn’t expect to see the merman.

After docking the boat, Dean jumped out and climbed up the rocks. He took a few sips from the spring at the top beneath the orange trees, then wandered around with the afternoon sun hot on his head. He brought a baseball cap to help keep most of the rays off, but it was still quite hot.

As he stood atop the highest rock he could find, Dean looked out over the waves and yelled, “CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!” as loud as he was physically able. Maybe there was a hope.

“CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!!”

He waited for an hour, sitting at those rocks and keeping an eye on all directions, but nothing happened at all. On the verge of tears, he went back to the boat and sailed home. At least this time he caught some tuna on his way back.

* * *

Dean became increasingly reclusive, hardly leaving the house and barely ating. Sam was so frustrated with him that he didn’t even bother to bring him along on fishing excursions. He brought in some decent profits while Dean moped about in his room. The blue handprint was fading from his arm. The view of the ocean from his window was lonelier than ever.

He would sit in bed, late at night and listen with the window open for Castiel’s voice. It was stupid to think he would hear him, since Cas would never, ever sing within earshot of humans. The pain in his heart made Dean so dizzy and delirious that he listened anyway. He put his hands on his chest and whispered, “ _poh-lah_ ” in Cas’ weird language. He even took a blank notebook and started sketching parts of Cas he found interesting. He drew his ear-fins, his tail, he genitals. He wrote in great detail how the mating worked and how beautiful it was to him. He kept the journal close. It made him think about how much he really cared for Cas.

Then the next full moon came and Dean knew he was going to go again. Sam seemed to have an inkling, too (a rumor was going around in Gunspier that Dean had been bitten by a werewolf).

“You’re leaving again, aren’t you?” Sam asked in a sharp voice. He was still in his bathrobe, standing by the kitchen sink with a cup of coffee.

“Yeah,” Dean said. He didn’t bother to sound nice or anything. “Be back in a day I guess.”

“No,” said Sam.

“Huh?”

“No, no, Dean. Stay out as long as you want. Just leave _Mary’s Bounty_ here with me.”

“What? Why?” Dean frowned.

Sam turned around slowly and stared at his brother. His expression was disturbingly blank.

“I don’t think I really need you here,” said Sam.

“What?!” Dean shouted. “Are you throwing me the fuck out?!”

“You keep leaving! Why should you stay? I can’t deal with this!”

“Are you _serious_?!”

“Yes!”

Dean glared. He gripped the bags in his hands and bit his lower lip. “Fine,” he said. “Fuck you, too.”

He took a few extra personal items, shoved them into an additional bag, then cursed at his brother a few more times before leaving loudly.

“LEAVE _MARY’S BOUNTY_ HERE!”

Sam’s yelling voice makes Dean angry. He kicks the bottom step before he storms off like a child. “Kick me out?” he says to himself, seething. “Stupid idiot.”

Lucky for Dean, they always kept a back-up dinghy docked at the port. He dropped all his stuff into it and then got in with a huff. Where would he go after the island? Cas wouldn’t be there. Dean couldn’t even be bothered with that sort of thing. He started the little engine and went on his way.

Once more, the island was empty. He climbed the rocks, yelled for Cas but nothing, as expected, changed. He sat there and stared at the ocean for a while. Longer this time. He had nowhere else to be, anyway. Did Sam really mean it? Maybe it was just a fleeting fit of rage. “Well, I just won’t come back and then he’ll feel bad if he ever gets over it.”

As Dean watched the turquoise waves rush up to the shore then retract, sloshing and rocking in the rhythm he knew so well, something on the horizon caught his attention. It looked like the wreckage of a ship.

Dean immediately climbed down the rocks and got back into the dinghy. If it was a wrecked ship, there might be people on board. He had enough food and supplies for a while, so he was perfectly capable of saving a life.

The closer he got, the smaller the wreckage got. It ended up being only a few pieces of old, old ship that had been tattered from a storm seemingly years ago. It could have been floating for a long time. Dean rowed the dinghy through the different pieces, looking them over in case he missed something. That is when he saw another chunk of ship floating close.

“Hey…”

While Dean brought his small boat closer, the wrecked piece tried to move away. It was definitely a piece of an old ship, with a divider sticking up in the middle. Dean guessed the part that was floating atop the water used to be the side of the ship, and the piece that stuck straight up had been the floor. He rowed the dinghy around to see the other side.

“HEY!”

Someone was laying down on the part behind the sticking up piece, but it wasn’t just anybody. It was Cas.


	12. Sacrifice

 

“CAS!”

Dean shouted the moment he saw the body on the wreckage. His tailfin was dipped into the water but the rest of his body was sprawled out, face down and motionless.

“Cas!”

Dean leaned over the edge of his dinghy and grabbed the merman. It was unclear to him whether or not he was alive, and the sheer luck of happening upon him made him dizzy. The body was covered in old wounds, most of his fins tattered and with teeth marks. When he touched the skin, it felt dry.

He slipped his arms beneath Castiel’s armpits and hoisted him up, leaning over the edge of the dinghy dangerously to plop the merman into the water. If he let go, he might drop down and out of sight. He was quite heavy and Dean struggled, but as soon as Cas’ face touched the water, he squirmed.

“Deep breath,” said Dean.

Cas’ mouth opened up weakly and he took his some water. Dean nearly fell off the boat.

“Come up.”

He pulled Cas onto the dinghy and laid him down on his back. Cas didn’t move much and his eyes were still closed. Dean started the small motor and began to sail towards the island again, leaving the wreckage behind.

“Dean…”

As they moved along, Cas gasped a few times and muttered.

“Shhh,” Dean hushed him. He wanted Cas to reserve his energy. “You’re gonna be okay.”

After they sailed across the ocean and returned to the island, the boat pushed into the sand and Dean carefully pulled Castiel off. He slid him over the ground and placed him gently into one of the veins of water that had been dug over the island. Cas settled into it on his back and Dean sat beside him. He saw how scraped up his hands were.

“Cas…”

Dean cupped both hands around one of Cas’ and examined it. The fingertips were scarred, bumpy tips with no claws, just dark skin. His webbing was torn but healed over. Then Cas’ eyelids slowly opened and he struggled to focus.

“D-Dean…”

“I’m here, Cas.”

“D-dead?”

Dean shook his head. “You’re alright, Cas. I’m really here.”

“Oh,” the merman sighed. He closed his eyes once more and made a weak smile. “Thank you.”

“Not mad that I’m here? After…well…”

“No…I’m glad…”

Dean let go of Cas with one hand and cupped his face. The merman’s soft skin was worn and scraped, one of his ear-fins was bitten. He turned into Dean’s palm. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Dean. “What happened to you?”

“My people,” Cas began, speaking weakly. “They…they were angry…cast me out…”

“Why?”

Cas made a painful sound and closed his eyes again. Thinking he pushed him too hard, Dean’s brow furrowed as he released his hand. “Hungry?”

“Yes…”

“Hold on a sec.”

Dean left him for a brief moment to scale the rocks and pick a couple of plump oranges. He returned, peeled them with his utility knife and put half a section into Cas’ mouth. He chewed feebly and swallowed.

“That better?” asked Dean, cutting more sections in his hand.

“Yes…thank you…”

“You want more?”

“Please…”

For about a few silent minutes, Dean gave Cas small pieces of orange and stroked his messy hair. The merman still didn’t move much and he kept his eyes closed. When the orange was finished, Dean told him and Cas muttered, “Sleep.”

“Okay. Do what you gotta do.”

While Cas rested, Dean put a blanket down and had some of the food in his bag. The day dragged on and melted into night, then Dean built a fire. He sat and stared at it for a long time.

He found Cas, but would he live? If he was an outcast from the merpeople, where could he go afterwards? Where could _Dean_ go, knowing his brother didn’t want him back?

“Dean…”

“Huh?”

Cas woke up rather late. When Dean turned and saw him, he had sat up and some color was back to his face, though he was still scarred and messy looking.

“Thank you,” the merman whispered.

“Don’t thank me,” said Dean. He crawled over to Cas, pulled his shirt off to stay dry and gave him a hug. Cas fell right into his arms and held him tight. “I did what anyone would do. It’s just lucky that I managed to find you.”

“It is,” Cas hummed. His mutilated fingers touched Dean’s back.

“I’m sorry ‘bout everything that happened,” said Dean. “Not just between us, but with your people. Why did they do this to you?”

Cas looked up at Dean now, eyes full of great sadness. His ear-fins twitched.

“I forsake them,” he said.

“How?”

“Mating with a landperson.”

Dean’s eyes widened and he clenched his jaw. “You…you told them?”

“Indeed.”

“But you…”

“No, I didn’t.”

“ _How_?”

Cas let go now. He pulled himself out of the trench and laid on the blanket beside Dean. “I was unaware,” he began, “That the curse is capable of being lifted. It simply takes a very, very strong power.”

Dean, staring at Cas’ sad face in the firelight, propped himself up on his side and touched Cas’ hip. “What power?” he asked.

Shyly, Cas rolled into Dean’s touched and closed his eyes. A tiny smile was on his face as he whispered, “True love.”

“OH,” Dean replied loudly. His cheeks turned bright red.

“Dean, when you, um, when you said you had mated with previous people…”

Dean looked away from Cas now, but the merman continued.

“…it was painful for me. It didn’t occur to me that it was ‘love’ you had experienced, considering you had mated before. My kind mates for life, you see…”

“Y-yeah, we don’t usually do that,” Dean replied in a gruff whisper. Cas’ squeezed Dean’s hand.

“I understand,” he said. “I made assumptions. It was foolish. I made mistakes. I’m sorry…”

All of the sudden, Dean sprang onto Cas, knocking him on his back and straddle him. He hugged him tight and began kissing his lips. Cas let out a yelp but put his arms around Dean, too. His tail fluttered as they kissed.

“Oh, Cas!” Dean groaned. He dragged his lips down the merman’s face and to his neck. “We’ll mate for life!”

Cas trembled as he held onto Dean. He took a few shaky breaths. “E-even with my injuries?” he asked shyly.

“You can just heal ‘em, can’t you?”

“No…”

“What? Why not?”

“They’ve scarred.”

“You can’t bust through a scar?”

“I’m afraid not.”

Coming to his senses, Dean got off of Cas. He apologized but Cas didn’t mean. He made sure he hadn’t hurt him more, which he didn’t.

“I cannot hunt and I cannot defend myself,” Cas said solemnly. “My ability to swim has been tarnished as well.”

“I’ll teach you how to use weapons,” Dean said.

“Will you?”

“’Course. Look, I don’t have big claws or anything but I can catch fish. I’ll show you.”

“Dean…”

“Yeah?”

Cas smiled and stared at his partner. He took his hand and, once realizing that his fingers separated just like Dean’s, they worked them together. They could hold hands now.

“May I go to the landpeople city with you?”

“Um, I dunno about that.”

“Why not?”

“My brother kicked me out. I’m not really going back there.”

“Is that true?” Cas asked, looking surprised. “We were both exiled from our homes?”

“Looks like it,” Dean said with a sad smile. “Plus I don’t think my people should know about yours. They can be pretty brutal. I bet some of ‘em will hunt you.”

“Oh…”

It looked like Cas was thinking hard. He focused his eyes on nothing and his brow furrowed.

“What’s up?” Dean asked.

“We are mated but we have no home, is this correct?”

Dean sighed. “Y-yeah, it is. I dunno where I’m gonna go.”

Eyes twinkling, Cas looked at Dean and squeezed his hand. “I have a solution,” he stated.

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

“I can give us a way to live together, but it will cost me lots.”

“Like what?”

“I will sleep on this and make a decision in the morning.”

“Wait…actually?”

“Yes.”

“Um. Okay then.”

Cas looked a little disturbed. He climbed into Dean’s arms and kissed him. Dean moaned. “Should probably save your strength,” he grunted between kisses.

“But I want to mate,” Cas said in a heavy breath.

“Yeah?”

“Mmmh…”

Cas toppled Dean and began to rub his tail against Dean’s hip. Dean quickly struggled to finish undressing, then he slipped his hand between them and rubbed along Cas’ slit gently.

“Aaah,” Cas moaned, arching his back. His tattered fins stuck out to the side and fluttered. Dean worked his fingers inside Cas as the lips moistened and opened up.

“Gooood,” Dean cooed, scissoring his fingers around and curling them to rub the muscles near the top of the gash. Thin liquid dribbled down the slit and splattered onto Dean’s abdomen. He took his fingers out for a moment to taste the fluids, blushing and grinning as he did so. Cas rubbed himself along Dean’s hardon.

“Mate with me,” Cas pleaded, eyes closed.

“Sure thing, baby,” said Dean. He thumbed over Cas’ little prick as he lowered the merman down over his shaft. They both tightened up and moaned at the sensation.

“Dean!” Cas gasped, rocking against the cock. More nectar spurted forth from him genitals.

“Ride me,” Dean groaned.

They writhed together for some time, moaning loudly and thrusting into each other. Cas drenched Dean with his juices, spurting and spraying from his small cock as Dean pounded him hard. With his claws destroyed, Cas was able to touch Dean in ways he never thought possible. He could hold his shoulders, his face, his chest and grab hard, using his body like a handle as Dean fucked him.

“See?” Dean huffed. “It’s an improvement!”

“Yes! YES!”

Cas arched his back again and let out a loud, cracked cry. The thin, pink straw expanded from his cock and he shot a massive loud out. Dean felt his own cum get squeezed out by the impossibly tight cave of muscles within Cas, too. They held onto each other tight and leaned together for a hot kiss.

“Oh, Cas,” Dean moaned. “Cas, I love you.”

Eyes glazed over, Cas stared back at Dean and said, “I love you, Dean. Now we are _poh-lah_.”

“Yeah,” Dean replied, a thin smile on his face. “A pair. Always.”

They embraced as their orgasms diminished, kissing weakly and pronouncing their love over and over again. The fire faded and they managed to fall asleep.

But the sleep didn’t last long, since morning was right around the corner. Cas had regained enough strength to be nearly back to normal by then.

“Dean!” he shouted as he woke up.

“Zuhhh?”

Cas shook Dean lightly. He slithered off of him and dipped into the trench to get wet. Dean sat up on his palms and watch Cas as he smiled. Cas was splashing and twisting around in the water, smiling and humming to himself with great delight.

“Guess you’re feeling better, huh?” Dean asked, laughing.

“Yes!”

“Good. I’m glad to see it.”

“Me, too!”

He smacked his tail down on the water and sent some splashing. Dean flinched and laughed.

“So what’s this solution you came up with?” he asked.

“Oh,” Cas hummed. His ecstasy diminished. “Of course…”

Oddly quiet, Cas climbed back out of the trench and got right into Dean’s face. Both hands rested onto Dean’s arms gently and he stared, tilting his head.

“Um…what?” asked Dean, wetting his lips.

“There is something that my people can do,” Cas explained. Dean wasn’t happy with the direction they were suddenly taking. “Where we use up all our magic to make something permanent.”

“Can you heal your scars?”

“I _could_ ,” said Cas, “But I have something else I would rather do.”

“What?”

Cas leaned closer to Dean so that their noses touched.

“Will you stay with me for the rest of your life?” Cas asked in a gravelly whisper.

“I will, Cas. Will you?”

“Yes, most certainly. I want to be with you every moment until I perish.”

“Me, too. I just dunno how we can—“

“Dean…”

Cas put his hands onto Dean’s cheeks, holding rather firmly, and put their foreheads together. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Dean closed his eyes, too. He felt a surge of warmth spread from the top of his head and all the way to his toes. He couldn’t help but smile. The sensations that rippled through him were so joyous, so delightful and amazing that he nearly laughed. Then his cheeks felt strange. It wasn’t exactly pain, just a strange, ripping sensation. His smiled faded quickly. His lungs felt different. In fact, everything was moving around.

“C-Cas?” Dean asked, getting desperate.

Just as the feelings came to a head and he felt like shouting, they stopped. Cas let go. Dean opened his eyes and saw Cas staring back at him.

“Touch,” said Cas. He pointed at Dean’s face.

“Touch wha…”

Dean brought his hand to his own face and felt along his jaw. It was different. It was weird. It was…a gill?

“Holy shit!” Dean shouted.

He sprang up from his feet and dashed to the ocean, where Cas followed closely. He ran into the water and submerged his head. With an instinctive action, a thin, transparent third eyelid closed and he could easily see in the water. He swam deeper and saw Cas jump in after him. He took a deep breath. The water felt great. It rushed through his gills and he smiled.

“Cas!” he yelled, smiling.

They swam further away from the island. Dean did a few loops, trying to get his legs used to all of the swimming. Cas swam in circles around him, smiling.

“I can’t believe you can do this!” Dean chuckled. He suspended himself in the middle of the water, looking around at the fish that swam by. Cas swam up in front and took his hands.

“It was a sacrifice,” said Cas. “I cannot heal anymore. I cannot use any magic. But this way, we will always be together.”

Dean pulled Cas close and gave him a kiss. Underwater, it felt much different but still good. He nuzzled his nose against Cas’ and kissed him again. And again.

“Thanks,” he said at last.

“Of course.”

“I never thought we could have managed a happy ending like this.”

Cas giggled cutely. “Certainly. As I have always said, the ocean provides.”

It was unclear if Dean ever returned to Gunspier. It is likely that he did, since the guilt of leaving Sam alone and upset weighed too heavy after some time. But Castiel never went back to his tribe of seapeople. Instead, they roamed the oceans together, learning each other’s crafts and spending every last minute in shared company. They probably found a tribe of seapeople who took them in. They may have found landpeople that did as well. Many details are uncertain. However, we can be sure that nothing was better than returning to the orange island every month to make love on the sand in the moonlight. And that was just perfect.

  **~*~ The End ~*~**


End file.
